Former US Air Force Member Sentenced to 15 years for Production of Child Pornography

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA — Bryce Carter Studebaker, 25, of Moncks Corner, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for production of child pornography.

Evidence presented to the Court showed that on March 30, 2018, Studebaker, then an Airman in the U.S. Air Force and stationed at Beale Air Force Base in California, communicated on Facebook Messenger with a 14-year-old minor who lived in Tennessee. During the messaging, Studebaker persuaded the minor to produce videos and images of herself engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and to send the videos and images to Studebaker. Authorities discovered the conduct after responding to a call from the minor’s mother who said her daughter had been communicating with an online predator.

United States District Judge Bruce Howe Hendricks sentenced Studebaker to 180 months in federal prison, to be followed by a lifetime term of court-ordered supervision.  There is no parole in the federal system.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OIS). Assistant U.S. Attorney Dean H. Secor prosecuted the case.

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