William Futrell, Child Pornography, New York 2024

Syracuse man sentenced to 21+ years for receiving child pornography via Snapchat

A 31-year-old Syracuse man has been sentenced to over 21 years in federal prison for receiving child pornography from multiple minors via Snapchat.

According to the United States Attorney’s Office, William Futrell, a registered sex offender with a previous conviction for possession of child pornography in New York, used Snapchat to communicate with minors from across the country.

In some instances, Futrell would offer to pay the minor children to entice them to send explicit images to him, but with no intention of ever paying them. On at least 10 occasions, Futrell obtained images depicting the children engaged in sexually explicit conduct directly from the minors.

Futrell is a registered sex offender with a previous conviction for possession of child pornography in New York.

United States District Judge Brenda K. Sannes also ordered that Futrell serve a 15-year term of post-incarceration supervised release. Futrell will be required to register as a sex offender after his release from prison.

The investigation into Futrell’s crimes was led by the United States Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with the assistance of the New York State Police (NYSP) Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the NYSP Troop D Computer Crime Unit. Paul Tuck, a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, prosecuted Futrell as part of Project Safe Childhood.

Project Safe Childhood, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, is a national initiative aimed at combating the sexual exploitation of children. The program marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.

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