LOGAN — A 24-year-old Logan man turned himself into the Cache County Jail Tuesday, Feb. 11, to begin serving his sentence for exchanging child sexual abuse material on a popular chat app. Samuel Jeffrey Ballard was sentenced last week to 120 days in jail, followed by 90 days of home confinement and 36 months of probation, after law enforcement found multiple child pornography pictures and videos on his smartphone.
Ballard was sentenced February 5 in Logan’s 1st District Court. He had previously pleaded guilty to five counts of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, a first-degree felony; and five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony.
According to prosecutors, Logan City Police officers received a cybertip in 2023, describing how various child sexual abuse material had been exchanged across a popular chat program called Session, an encrypted messaging app. The files depicted a 7 to 9-year-old female being sexually abused.
Officers later tracked the user account to Ballard. They obtained a search warrant, where they located additional child porn uploaded to a Google Photos account, registered in his name.
On Nov. 14, 2023, police contacted Ballard and took him into custody for questioning. They also seized his cellphone, where they reportedly located additional child pornography in a hidden, password protected folder.
During questioning, Ballard admitted to owning the user accounts for the chat app and Google Photos. He suggested that he randomly received the child porn but did not search it out.
Police confronted Ballard about the material found on his smartphone and Google account. The defendant reportedly told police, “he needed help and hated himself for what he was participating in,” the probable cause statement read.
Although Ballard was sentenced last week, Judge Brian Cannell said he would allow the defendant to turn himself in to jail deputies by February 11, according to court records. He also prohibited the defendant from having access to the internet, and placed him on the sex-offender registry.