A Yates County Grand Jury has indicted an Alabama man on 19 charges including sex trafficking of a child.
According to Yates County District Todd Casella, the investigation into Austin Pace started in April. The 25-year-old is alleged to have utilized social media and online chat applications to communicate with a minor child and enter into an online sexual relationship. Investigators also accuse Pace of using force or intimidation, to command her to engage in sexual activity and the creation of child pornography for his sexual gratification daily.
Pace is alleged to have utilized more than a dozen social applications to exploit the minor including but not limited to Snapchat, Discord, Among Friends, and Instagram. During the investigation, multiple electronic devices were seized along with the contents of the social media accounts that contained videos and images.
On May 15, Cullman County Sheriff’s Office Investigators assisted the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and Homeland Security Investigations (HBI) executed a search warrant of Pace’s residence after receiving cyber tips linking him to child pornography stemming from the Yates County investigation. Alabama Law Enforcement Agencies confiscated several electronic devices that will be processed. Contemporaneous with the execution of the search warrant Pace was arrested on a Superior Court Warrant out of Yates County and extradited by the Yates County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday.
Pace was arraigned on Thursday on a 19-count indictment; among the charges are Sex Trafficking of a Child, five counts of Promoting Prostitution of a Person under 15, Compelling prostitution of a Person Less Than 18, Coercion, Use of a Child Under 17 In A Sexual Performance, Promoting Sex Performance By Child Under 17 and Obscenity in the First Degree.
The Hon. Mackenzie Stutzman set bail at $50,000 cash, $100,000 bond, and $200,000 partially secured bond. Pace is due back in Court on June 11th.
If convicted, Pace faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison, and up to 20 years of supervised release. He is also facing the possibility of consecutive sentencing for the charges.
The Yates County District Attorney’s Office received assistance in its investigation from the New York State Police Computer Crimes Unit, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children,
and Cullman County Sheriff’s Office in Alabama
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