A Falconer man has pleaded guilty to child pornography charges shortly after his federal trial got underway. U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced Wednesday that 27-year-old Yusef Myrick entered his plea to four counts of production of child pornography after opening arguments were made. The plea was the result of an investigation by the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office, Jamestown Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, and Ellicott Police Department. Additional assistance was provided by the Rome Police Department in Georgia and the Child Advocacy Program of Chautauqua County.
The investigation found that between September 2020 and December 19, 2021, Myrick communicated with several minor females on various social media platforms, including Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram, coercing four minor victims to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purposes of producing visual depictions of such conduct. During the investigation, law enforcement officers discovered that in December 2021, Myrick instructed co-defendant Lily Brandow to locate his cell phone, which he hid in their home in an attempt to conceal it from law enforcement. He also instructed Brandow to access and delete several Google accounts and a Snapchat account which he knew were subjects of the investigation and prosecution. On January 31, 2022, during the arrest of Brandow, Myrick's cell phone was seized and found to contain child pornography.
The investigation further determined that Myrick engaged in a sexually explicit conversation with a victim on Snapchat, during which he asked the minor victim to send him a sexually explicit photo. Myrick also accessed the victim's Snapchat account and posted a video to her public Snap Story, depicting the victim engaged in sexual activity with another known minor. In addition, Myrick engaged in sexual activity with three other minor victims and recorded the activity on his cell phone. He sent the sexually explicit videos from two of the victims to other individuals.
Myrick faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in federal prison and a maximum of 30 years at his sentencing, which will be scheduled at a later date.
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