Brandon Tyler Hill, 31, of Colorado Springs, was sentenced January 19, by U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson to serve 30 years in federal prison, followed by a lifetime of supervision, for transportation of child pornography Acting U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer announced this week.

On May 6, 2015, a federal grand jury returned an Indictment charging Brandon Tyler Hill and Rhiannon Carnahan, of Woodland Park, with child pornography related charges. Prior to the indictment, Hill and Carnahan were charged via Criminal Complaints. Hill pled guilty to three counts of transportation of child pornography in March last year. Carnahan has pled guilty to child pornography charges and is scheduled to be sentenced February 21. 

According to court documents, the Colorado Springs Police Department initiated an investigation after a civilian witness reached out to law enforcement to report that Hill had sent unwanted child pornography images via email and was being extorted to produce more child pornography images. As part of the investigation, it was determined that the defendant utilized numerous identities, including that of an Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) police officer, to extort the civilian witness to produce child pornography. The investigation revealed that Hill was also communicating online with co-defendant Carnahan, who he learned had access to a child who was three years old when the offense conduct began.

Hill made numerous and repeated requests for images and videos depicting the three year old engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Hill also used various pseudonyms, including the identity of an ICAC police officer, to communicate with Carnahan. During the course of the communications and in response to Hill’s requests for child pornography depicting the child, Carnahan took sexually explicit images and videos of the child with her cell phone and sent them to Hill. Hill has a prior conviction for Criminal Attempt to Commit Sexual Exploitation of a Child in El Paso County, Colorado.

“This defendant earned his way to a 30-year sentence: he preyed on our most innocent and most vulnerable, and he pretended to be a cop at times while doing it,” said Troyer. 

The case was investigated by the Colorado Springs Police Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), with support provided by the Woodland Park Police Department.

Hill was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alecia Riewerts, Project Safe Childhood Coordinator.