I take full responsibility for what I did."
A federal judge Monday sentenced a prominent Niota, Tenn., businessman to serve six years in prison after the man pleaded guilty in a child pornography case.
“I let drugs cloud my mind; and I never knew, never realized, the power and influence drugs can have,” Terry Lynn Hayes told District Judge Harry S. “Sandy” Mattice just before he was sentenced.
Hayes, 47, entered a guilty plea in February 2014 to charges that he transported pornography involving a minor and knowingly gave minors cocaine and Xanax.
In late July 2012, federal prosecutors said, Hayes brought two teenagers and an adult woman to his home and gave them drugs and alcohol. About a week later, Hayes picked up three girls, ages 14, 15 and 16, from Dayton, Tenn., and brought them to his Niota home where he gave them alcohol and drugs and took pornographic photos of them. He sent one of those photos to a man in Quantico, Va., according to court documents.