Antioch Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison For Child Pornography Offenses

Christopher N. Bonick, 31, Antioch, Tennessee, was sentenced on August 26, 2016, to serve 20 years in prison, to be followed by 30 years of supervised release, for attempting to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity and possession of child pornography, announced David Rivera, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. Bonick was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Aleta Trauger after having been found guilty by a federal jury following a March 2016 trial.

The evidence at trial showed that in July 2010, Bonick began communicating on-line with an individual that he initially believed to be a 13-year-old girl. In July 2011, Bonick engaged in a lengthy, sexually explicit chat with this person, who, unknown to him, was actually an undercover law enforcement officer in Louisiana. Bonick asked this individual if she would be willing to engage in sexual activity with him and told her that he had previously met a 15-year-old girl online and had traveled to have sex with her. Bonick discussed traveling to see her and continued the sexually explicit conversation.

Other evidence introduced at trial also showed that Bonick had previously communicated with numerous minors online and had solicited child pornography from them and had traded child pornography with other individuals via email.

Bonick was in possession of dozens of images of child pornography when a search warrant was served at his home in Antioch in January 2012, at which time he admitted that he was sexually attracted to minor teenagers.

Testimony presented to the Court during the sentencing hearing revealed that Bonick also had been talking on teen oriented websites to as many as 21 minors between July 2010 and July 2011 and had engaged young girls in chat conversations before turning the conversations to a sexual nature and sending and soliciting explicit images.

The case was investigated by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carrie Daughtrey and Henry Leventis.