Army soldier station at Schofield Barracks charged with producing, distributing child porn
Click here for updates on this story
HONOLULU (KITV) — An Army soldier stationed at Schofield Barracks on Oahu has been charged with producing and distributing child pornography.
According to court documents, from July 2023 to June 2024, Tyler Ray Daughtry produced and distributed child pornography in Hawaii and elsewhere.
Federal investigators first started looking into the case in December 2023 after a 13-year-old girl in Wisconsin was admitted into a mental health facility for suicidal ideation after she said she was involved in an “internet relationship” with Daughtry on Instagram.
After interviews the teen girl, investigators learned that she and Daughtry had been in communication for nearly one year using various social media platforms like Discord, Instagram and SnapChat. The conversations during that time were consistently lewd in nature. And the victim sent multiple lewd images and videos of herself.
During at least one message exchange, investigators said Daughtry admitted to showing the videos and images to his “friends.”
On Feb. 7, 2024, the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) executed a search warrant on Daughtry’s “person and premises” at Schofield Barracks. During that search, investigators recovered a cell phone that allegedly confirmed his conversations with the teen in Wisconsin as well as other unconfirmed minor girls.
In an interview with police later that day, investigators say Daughtry admitted to sexually exploiting the teen victim in Wisconsin. He also admitted to sending images and video of the victim on the Discord app as well as paying the victim for performing the lewd acts.
Daughtry told investigators that he joined the Army on his 18th birthday in September 2022 and since then said he had sexually exploited 75 to 85 other minor victims under the age of 16. A search warrant served to Discord revealed another 107 potential mi nor victims with whom Daughtry had contacted.
Since his initial apprehension in February, Daughtry was told by his Battalion Commander the conditions of his administrative restriction. According to that restriction, signed by Daughtry, he was forbidden to use any electronic device that could send receive or store any digital materials without prior command approval.
But on July 16, investigators say they were contacted by a police detective in South Dakota that said he had been informed by a concerned family member that a 15-year-old girl in Rapid City had been recently communicating with Daughtry online.
In this encounter, investigators discovered that Daughtry and the girl had been communicating for about a month. They also learned that Daughtry had given his own credit card information to the victim for her to purchase sex toys. More graphic photo, video, and messaging exchanges were also uncovered.
Daughtry has since been remanded to the custody of the US Marshal Service. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 6, 2024.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
