COLUMBUS, Ohio – A Logan, Ohio, woman was sentenced in federal court here today to 480 months in prison for sexually exploiting minors as young as 3-years-old and possessing child pornography.
Carrie Daniels, 38, was charged federally in April 2022 along with her significant other, Robert Gemienhardt, 42. Gemienhardt was sentenced to 45 years’ incarceration in February 2023 for producing child pornography of a 3-year-old child and possessing thousands of images of child sexual abuse, some of which depicted other minor children to whom the defendants had access.
The two defendants groomed minor victims, sexually abused the victims, and created child pornography of the abuse.
According to court documents, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received a tip from Kik messenger regarding Gemienhardt’s online child exploitation activities conducted at Daniels’s residence. The Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force and the Hocking County Sheriff’s Office then began investigating the allegations and learned that four minor children lived in the home with Daniels and Gemienhardt.
Subsequent search warrants executed by the Hocking County Sherriff’s Office, in conjunction with the FBI, revealed that Daniels had produced child pornography of an approximately 3-year-old child and distributed the images she had produced to Gemienhardt. Those images were ultimately recovered on Gemienhardt’s phone. Daniels also photographed two of the minor children, who were 9 and 13 years of age at the time, nude in the bathroom. Daniels then sent those images of the minor children to Gemienhardt as well. Further evidence revealed that at times, Gemienhardt and Daniels acted together to produce child pornography through the grooming and sexual abuse of two of the minor victims to whom they had access between April and June of 2020.
Daniels and Gemienhardt, who was a registered sex offender in the state of Ohio, exchanged thousands of illicit text messages detailing their sexual fantasies about four separate minor victims.
Daniels pleaded guilty in October 2022 to sexually exploiting minors and possessing child pornography.
