Albert Lea man gets life in prison for online child exploitation
A 33-year-old Albert Lea man was sentenced to life in prison plus 10 years for sextortion and the online sexual exploitation of minors, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Friday.
Travis Kyle Mayer downloaded and got child pornography from a Russian-based child porn website in 2017, court documents show. In 2018, through coercion and persuasion, he sexually exploited a 15-year-old girl to make child porn — which he then distributed.
At the time of these acts, Mayer was already a convicted sex offender.
The Attorney’s Office also said that in 2019, Mayer tried to obstruct justice by encouraging a witness to give false testimony regarding the child sexual exploitation investigation.
“For years, this defendant victimized children by sexually exploiting them,” U.S. Attorney Charles J. Kovats wrote. “Despite prior criminal convictions, Mayer continued his pattern of predatory behavior by exploiting, extorting, coercing, and threatening his minor victims. A sentence of life in prison is justified and ensures that he will never again victimize another child.”
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After a six-day trial in June, Mayer was convicted by federal jury of the following charges: Two counts of production and attempted production of child porn, one count of distributing child porn, one count of possessing child porn, one count of receiving child porn, one count of coercion and enticement of a minor, one count of committing a felony while involving a minor while required to register as a sex offender and one count of obstruction of justice.