A Chattanooga man was sentenced Friday to 17 years and one month in federal prison for enticing teenage girls to produce sexually explicit images and then blackmailing them to create more.
“What you did is just incredibly callous and dark and selfish,” District Judge Travis R McDonough told the defendant, Cadairyian Watt III.
Watt, 30, will spend 10 years on supervised release after incarceration and is required to register as a sex offender.
As part of a deal, Watt pleaded guilty in July to enticement in Chattanooga’s federal court.
The United States dismissed other charges against him in return, including exploitation of a minor, selling child pornography, possession of child pornography and transfer of obscene material to minors.
From January to April 2020, Watt contacted five girls from the ages of 13 to 17 and enticed them to produce images.
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When the girls were no longer willing to produce the content, he used his victims’ fear that he would publish the images to force them to create more.
Watt sold one of the girl’s images to a popular pornography website, and he posted one of the other girl’s photographs on Facebook, according to McDonough.
His public defender, Clayton Whittaker, argued at the sentencing hearing his client did not have an interest in a particular age of female, and he previously had one romantic relationship with a woman of age.
In this time, young women are sexualized from a young age, Whittaker said.
“It’s become very common for young women to post pictures of themselves online,” he said.
Watt was bullied his entire life because he stands 5-foot tall, and he is isn’t a sociopath, a psychopath or a pedophile, Whittaker said.
Prosecutor Charles Minor said he pushed back on the notion the crime is somehow less severe or the victims needed less protection because they were older children. It takes away responsibility from Watt to suggest girls are over-sexualized, he said.
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There have been at least 20 instances of children committing suicide after becoming victims of sextortion, he said.
“Those are your formative years,” Minor said. “Those are the years, in essence, that create the person you are in your 30s and 40s.”
Watt told the judge he now realized the error of his ways, and he is very apologetic for opening this “traumatic door” in the girls’ lives.
“I would feel like I robbed them of a childhood experience, and that really hurts me,” Watt said.
Watt was bullied and became a worse bully, McDonough said, adding it’s up to him whether he chooses a positive path in prison and throughout the rest of his life.
“I think you’re a pretty reflective person,” McDonough said. “I think you’ve matured a lot in the past few years.”
Contact courts reporter Sofia Saric at ssaric@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476.