A Faulkner County man faces a possible sentence of 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to one count of distribution of child pornography.
Jordan Cutler, 30, of Greenbrier, was indicted by a federal grand jury in June 2020 on one count each of production, transportation and distribution of child pornography following accusations that he threatened to kill a 13-year-old girl and her family unless she sent him nude images of herself and demanded a Benton woman send him pictures of her daughter.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed in federal court, the events leading to the charges began in November 2019 with an Instagram notification to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a user had uploaded child pornography to the social media site. The affidavit said the user, who also uploaded his own photograph, was identified as Cutler, who operated a lawn and landscaping business in Greenbrier.
The following day, the affidavit said, a 13-year-old girl to whose Instagram account the video and picture were posted told officials at the Child Advocacy Center in Arkadelphia that two days earlier she had received threats over Instagram and Snapchat. She said the person who contacted her had told her if she didn't send nude images of herself he would kidnap, torture and murder her. The affidavit said the girl said she complied by sending a video of herself but said she was then told to molest and photograph her younger sibling.
The girl said she was told by the man that he would rape, torture and kill them both if she refused the demand, the affidavit said.
On Wednesday, federal marshals escorted Cutler into the courtroom from the Jefferson County jail, where he has been held for federal authorities since March of last year. Prior to that, he had been held in the Pulaski County jail since April 2020 after a federal magistrate judge ordered him held for trial after finding that Cutler had "engaged in dangerous and predatory behavior toward at least one minor and threatened serious harm to multiple individuals."
U.S. District Judge Brian Miller presided over the hearing remotely. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristin Bryant, who is prosecuting the case, was present in the courtroom, as was Cutler's attorney, Lauren Elenbaas of Conway.
In pleading guilty to the charge contained in Count 3 of the indictment, Cutler will not face prosecution on Counts 1 and 2, production of child pornography and transportation of child pornography.
"He's receiving a significant benefit with the dismissal of Count 1 which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison," said Bryant, as she outlined the terms of the plea agreement.
Summarizing the factual basis of Count 3, Bryant said that on Feb. 5, 2020, a woman she identified as "H.B." told Benton County sheriff's investigators that she had been contacted through Facebook by a person who identified himself as "Dylan Hook," who was later identified as Cutler.
"Hook claimed to know where H.B. lived, worked and stated he had been observing her day-to-day activities," Bryant said. "A search warrant was executed on that Facebook account and it was later determined that Dylan Hook was actually an alias that the defendant, Mr. Cutler, used on Facebook."
She said the search warrant revealed that on Dec. 3, 2019, Cutler, using the Dylan Hook alias, first contacted H.B. and on Dec. 30, sent her a 31-second video depicting an infant being sexually abused.
"H.B. responded by saying 'why the f*** do you keep sending me s*** like that?'" Bryant concluded.
Bryant said that Cutler was identified as H.B.'s tormentor through a photograph he sent her of himself while claiming to be Hook that investigators later compared to known photos of Cutler.
"How do you plead to the June 20, 2020 indictment?" Miller asked Cutler after Bryant had finished.
"Guilty," Cutler said, quietly, looking down at the defense table.
"Did you in fact commit the offense as charged?" Miller asked.
"Yes, Your Honor," Cutler answered.
After accepting Cutler's plea, Miller explained that he will be sentenced at a later date after completion of a pre-sentencing report by the U.S. Probation Office that will be used to calculate a sentence range under U.S. sentencing guideline, a process that typically takes two to three months.