An Inver Grove Heights man was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Thursday for soliciting girls online to send him nude photos in exchange for money.
Samuel Eric Snell (Courtesy of the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office)
Samuel Eric Snell, 46, received his sentence in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis after pleading guilty to one count of production of child pornography in connection with receiving sexually explicit images from his victims in 2022. Other charges dismissed as part of an April plea agreement included two counts of persuading or coercing a minor to engage in prostitution.
Snell was indicted in December after an FBI Investigation with help from the Inver Grove Heights and Woodbury police departments.
Snell was a user of the gaming platform Discord, where he repeatedly solicited and received more than 400 images of nude girls, according to federal prosecutors.
Snell posed as a man in his early 20s over several years to approach a “multitude of children as young as 12 years old,” prosecutors said. “Snell victimized at least 10 children using his lies, coercing and manipulating the victims to produce graphic child pornography. Snell also met with minors in person on multiple occasions.”
Prosecutors said Snell’s victims were from several states and he selected them “for their vulnerabilities” and “took advantage of their youth, naivete and difficult life circumstances to feed his own craven and twisted sexual desires.”
Snell’s sentence includes 10 years of supervised probation following incarceration.
In handing down the sentence, Judge John Tunheim said, “This is a long sentence, but it is justified” primarily because Snell’s victims would suffer traumatic effects of his crimes “probably for the rest of their lives.”
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