Judge keeps Ashdown child-porn suspect in jail

TEXARKANA — A 21-year-old Ashdown man accused of producing and posting child pornography involving 5- and 13-year-old girls will remain in jail while his case proceeds, a federal judge ruled Friday.

Aaron Lloyd Mitchell is accused of sexually abusing the girls on property in rural Foreman, according to a criminal complaint on file in the Texarkana Division of the Western District of Arkansas.

Mitchell, a lifelong Ashdown resident, was involved in a romantic relationship with the 5-year-old’s mother and had recently moved into their home, according to the complaint. The 13-year-old is the daughter of a friend of the 5-year-old’s mother and frequently spent the night in the same home with Mitchell, the 5-year-old and the younger girl’s mother.

Mitchell has been charged in the criminal complaint with producing and distributing child pornography involving the 5-year-old. Additional or different charges may be levied by a federal grand jury when presented for indictment.

Mitchell appeared Friday morning with Fayetteville attorney Matthew Hill for a detention hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Bryant. Mitchell asked the court to release him while the criminal case against him proceeds. Mitchell has been in jail since his arrest Nov. 21 after an investigation by the FBI and in conjunction with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The images which ultimately led to Mitchell’s arrest were first brought to the attention of the center through an anonymous posting to its cyber tipline Nov. 3. The tip identified six photos associated with a user name on the social media and blogging site Tumblr, which appeared to be images depicting the sexual abuse of children, the complaint said. The tip included a warning that the individual posting the images “may be currently molesting 5-yearold and 13-year-old and posting pics,” the complaint said.

The photos depicted the sexual abuse of a prepubescent female child and sexually oriented photos of a juvenile female, according to the complaint. The center received a second tip Nov. 5 from a Tumblr representative that included images identical to those received in the Nov. 3 tip, the document said.

The center conducted an analysis of some of the images that identified the location where they were created on an iPhone 7 Plus and provided a report Nov. 19 detailing the findings to the FBI. The next day the center and the FBI Violent Crimes Against Children Intelligence Unit contacted the FBI’s Texarkana office with the information. Agents in Little Rock used the location information extracted from the photos to identify a residence in Foreman at which the images were likely created, the complaint said.

Texarkana FBI agents went to the property Nov. 21 and learned from their investigation that Mitchell was living on the property. Mitchell was contacted by a nearby resident cooperating with the FBI and asked to come outside, the complaint said. When Mitchell walked out of the residence, he was “manipulating a cell phone in his hands,” according to the complaint.

Mitchell said he took the photos inside the residence of the 5- and 13-year-old girls depicted in the photographs at the center of the investigation, the complaint said.

“Mitchell further admitted to posting the photos of the females on Tumblr,” a federal complaint said. “Mitchell stated he had taken the photos through the SnapChat application, and then saved them to the camera roll on Mitchell’s phone, but he believed he had deleted most of them.”

Mitchell admitted to deleting the Tumblr app from his phone while FBI agents were standing outside of the Foreman residence, the complaint said. He told agents that the girls were sleeping when he photographed them, according to the complaint.