Lubbock man sentenced to 18 years for distributing child pornography
A Lubbock federal judge recently handed an 18-year prison sentence to a 25-year-old man who admitted to distributing thousands of images of child sexual abuse materials.
Ian Lewis Meyer faced between five to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty in August to a count of receipt and distribution of child pornography.
A pre-sentencing report, that weighed Meyer's criminal history and the facts of the case, provided the court with a guideline range of 188 to 235 months.
After a sentencing hearing on Thursday, U.S. District Judge James Hendrix handed down a 216-month prison sentence.
Meyer's charge stems from a Lubbock police investigation that began in December 2021 when detectives received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a social media user in Lubbock was distributing child sexual abuse materials.
Investigators found multiple IP addresses associated with the social media account. One of the addresses was a car wash, where investigators met with Meyers, who worked there.
Meyers admitted that he owned the email address associated with the social media account used to share child sexual abuse materials.
He further admitted to distributing at least 18 videos that depicted the violent sexual abuse of children, including prepubescent children, according to court documents.
However, in court, officials attributed at least 1,300 images of child sexual abuse to Meyer.
During the sentencing hearing, Meyer's attorney, David Sloan, argued for a sentence at the bottom of the range, saying he didn't believe his client would re-offend. He said Meyer had shown he was "invested in the process of rehabilitation."
He noted multiple letters of support family members sent the court on Meyer's behalf, describing him as a hard worker and a good son, brother and uncle.
Sloan said Meyer was immediately cooperative with investigators and appeared sincerely remorseful.
"He learned his lesson," Sloan said.
Meyer's parents appeared in court and asked for leniency. They said they were shocked and stunned when they learned about his crime.
They said they understood that Meyer needed to be punished for his actions but said they would do anything they needed to support him and make sure he does not reoffend.
However, prosecutors said Meyer's predatory actions reached beyond the online world.
Prosecutor Callie Woolam said during his interview with investigators' Meyers said when he was 20 years old he contacted a teenage girl between 15 and 16 years old online and met her for sexual activity.
A year later, when he was 21, Meyers said he exchanged explicit images with a 15-year-old girl. He also admitted to receiving explicit images from other children he reached out to online.
Woolam asked the court to hand down a significant sentence because Meyer's victims will suffer a lifetime of consequences because of his actions.
"Knowing that people like the defendant are out there enjoying videos of their suffering," she said.
She said Meyer's meager criminal history shouldn't weigh in his favor.
"This is a crime of secrecy," she said. "(He did these things) behind closed doors."
Hendrix told Meyer that his negligible criminal history and his family support were mitigating issues in the case, but the facts of the case contained enough aggravating factors to justify a sentence that protected the community from him.
He said the images he distributed online captured the worst moments of a child's life and he shared them with people for their enjoyment.
"When our most innocent in our community are traumatized like this, a just punishment is necessary," he said.
Meyer's also faces 10, second-degree felony counts of possession with intent to promote child pornography in the 137th District Court in Lubbock County.
Hendrix ordered Meyer's sentence to run concurrently with any sentence he may receive in that case.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock man sentenced to 18 years for distributing child pornography