Ron Welch
Muskingum County Prosecutor
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
Man sentenced to at least 15 years for possessing child sexual abuse materials, weapon
A 35-year-old Zanesville man was sentenced to 15 to 18-and-a-half years in prison for possessing child sexual abuse materials and a weapon while under disability.
Child sexual abuse materials is the term replacing child pornography. Child protection organizations, abuse survivors, prosecutors, law enforcement and child advocates all agree that the use of the term pornography implies consent, and a child cannot consent to being used in the production of child sexual abuse materials. Child sexual abuse materials includes any type of image or video showing a child being sexually abused.
Last week, Chaz McClure pleaded guilty to a prosecutor’s bill of information containing a pair of second-degree felony counts of pandering obscenity involving a child.
McClure also pleaded guilty to additional charges filed as a result of the child sexual abuse materials investigation, including one third-degree felony count of having a weapon under disability, one first-degree misdemeanor count of falsification and one minor misdemeanor count of possession of marijuana.
According to detectives from the Zanesville Police Department, the investigation into McClure began with information from Snap Inc. and the Internet Crimes Against Children taskforce that child sexual abuse materials were uploaded publicly on Snapchat from a user account on two separate occasions.
Both videos were uploaded in December 2021.
Investigators traced the Snapchat account back to McClure in Zanesville through a series of search warrants.
During a traffic stop made by the Zanesville Police Department in May for a traffic violation, McClure informed police he moved to a new address in Dresden.
Two days later, officers executed a search Warrant at McClure’s home where they seized the defendant’s electronic devices. These electronic devices contained the two videos of children under the age of 10 being sexually assaulted that resulted in these charges and sentence.
Police also located drugs, drug paraphernalia and a firearm in the home.
“The videos that the defendant possessed are not just videos of some unknown child. The videos are lasting recordings of children being raped that will exist forever on the internet. Some people argue that the child sexual abuse materials are just pictures or videos of someone else violating a child, but the person that seeks out this material creates a market for the images and needs punished just like the person making the materials,” Muskingum County Prosecutor Ron Welch said.
In addition to McClure’s prison sentence, he must also register as a Tier II sex offender every 180 days for a period of 25 years.
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