A South Carolina man and former member of the U.S. Air Force is going to prison for a sex crime involving a minor, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Bryce Carter Studebaker, a 25-year-old Moncks Corner resident, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for production of child pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release. There is no parole in the federal system.
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, according to the release.
Studebaker persuaded the minor to make videos and images of herself engaging in sexually explicit conduct and to send them to him, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Authorities discovered the crime after getting a call from the minor’s mother, who said her daughter had been communicating with an online predator, according to the release.
Studebaker’s prison sentence will be followed by a lifetime term of court-ordered supervision, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
On March 18, 2019, Studebaker was charged with four counts of producing and attempting to produce child pornography and four counts of receiving child pornography, Stars and Stripes reported. He originally pleaded not guilty to the charges before pleading guilty to one count on July 22, according to Stars and Stripes.
Service records show Studebaker served in the Air Force from 2016 to 2020, the Post and Courier reported. There was no word about how he was discharged.
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