Cory Ryan Day, Enticement of a Child for Sexual Purposes, Tennessee 2020

Knoxville, Tennessee – A Tennessee teacher and coach has been sentenced to 120 months in prison for enticement of a child for sexual purposes and traveling with the intent to illicit sexual conduct.

Cory Ryan Day, 24, of Huntsville, was sentenced by the Honorable Thomas A. Varlan in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville. As part of a plea agreement, Day agreed to plead guilty to an information charging him with one count of enticement of a child for sexual purposes in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b) and one count of traveling with the intent to illicit sexual conduct in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2423(a).

Day was sentenced to 120 months in prison, followed by 12 years of supervised release. He will be required to register with state sex offender registries and comply with special sex offender conditions during his supervised release.

In September and October of 2018, in the Eastern District of Tennessee, Day contacted a 15-year-old boy through Snapchat, a social media site. Day sent the minor a video of a couple having sex. Day then offered to pay the minor $200 and buy him alcohol if he would allow Day to have sexual contact with him. The minor refused.

At the end of December of 2018, a young girl began receiving messages on Snapchat from Day, who purported to be a teenage girl and sent naked photos of a teenage girl. Day subsequently requested naked photos of the young girl. Day then arranged a meeting with her, offering money and cigarettes in exchange for allowing Day to engage in illicit sexual conduct with her. Day traveled from Scott County in the Eastern District of Tennessee to the Eastern District of Kentucky to meet the girl.

At the time of the crimes, Day was a teacher and coach with the Scott County Schools. “This case is unfortunately representative of the calculated misuse of the Internet and social media by sexual predators,” said U.S. Attorney J. Douglas Overbey. “As parents, we need to be ever vigilant in protecting the children entrusted to our care. The U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to prosecute to the full extent of the law those who use social media to entice and prey on children for illicit purposes.”

The investigation was led by FBI Special Agent Kristina Norris and was a result of a joint effort between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Kolman represented the United States.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006, by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. For more information about PSC, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc/resources.html and click on the tab “resources.”

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