Former heavy metal star sentenced to prison for downloading child porn

Joe Marusak
·2 min read
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Karl Logan, former longtime star guitarist of world-touring heavy metal band Manowar, faced the music before a federal judge in Charlotte this week for possessing child pornography.

Judge Max Cogburn Jr. sentenced the 57-year-old Charlotte man to 5 1/2 years in prison on Monday, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office told The Charlotte Observer on Friday.

The sentencing came two years after Logan admitted to downloading the pornography. He remains free until the federal Bureau of Prisons assigns him a lockup, and Cogburn allowed him to self-report to prison, the court spokeswoman said.

Karl Logan, former longtime star guitarist of world-touring heavy metal band Manowar, was sentenced to prison in Charlotte, NC, on July 11, 2022, for possessing child pornography.
Karl Logan, former longtime star guitarist of world-touring heavy metal band Manowar, was sentenced to prison in Charlotte, NC, on July 11, 2022, for possessing child pornography.

Logan couldn’t be reached by the Observer on Friday. A cellphone number listed for Logan in public records was out of service, and a second number wasn’t accepting messages.

His attorney, Brad Smith of Charlotte, was out of the office Friday but said he would try to get the Observer a comment on Logan’s behalf.

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In July 2020, Logan pleaded guilty to two child-pornography counts, the Observer reported at the time.

Manowar expelled Logan after his 2018 arrest by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police on six counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor.

The case was transferred to federal court, where a grand jury indicted Logan in 2019 on one count each of receiving and possessing child pornography, according to court documents. He originally faced up to 25 years in prison.

He received the images by downloading them on the internet, according to court documents.

Logan joined Manowar in 1994.

The band is currently on its Crushing the Enemies of Metal Anniversary Tour, which “celebrates over 40 years of true metal and anniversaries of eight of the band’s most celebrated studio albums,” Manowar says on Facebook.

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Guinness World Records once certified Manowar as the world’s loudest band, for the decibel level it reached during a 1984 performance in Hanover, Germany, according to udiscovermusic.com. Guinness later removed the category because of concerns the category unintentionally promoted or led to hearing loss, the website reported.