A Faulkner County man who pleaded guilty earlier this year to attempting to produce child pornography was sentenced in federal court last week to 30 years in prison.
Kenny Avance, 26, of Vilonia, was initially charged in a criminal complaint filed May 12, 2021, with production of child pornography after a confidential source contacted the FBI regarding a Snapchat exchange with an individual using the username “KennyaVance,” who the source said first requested child porn photos and later sent two photos of a young female child nude from the waist down via a texting app. An indictment handed up by a federal grand jury June 1, 2021, charged Vance with one count each of attempted production of child pornography and receipt/distribution of child pornography.
In August, Avance pleaded guilty to the attempted production count before U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson in exchange for the dismissal of the remaining count. Wednesday afternoon, Wilson sentenced Avance to the statutory maximum prison term of 30 years to be followed by 10 years of supervised release after he leaves prison. Avance was also ordered to pay $27,000 restitution.
Court records indicated that Avance came under suspicion in May of 2021 after the FBI received a report that he had contacted an individual on Snapchat and asked for photos of “you doing sexy things with your little ones.” The records said that Avance was aware the individual had children ages 9 and 13 and asked the person to “show them naked or naked and you touching them.” After the individual responded they were not comfortable doing that, Avance then sent two images of a female toddler, completely naked, with a naked adult male’s genitalia in the photo.