Maine man, 30, gets 50 years on child porn charges

BANGOR, Maine - A West Gardiner man was sentenced on Monday in U.S. District Court in Bangor for transporting, receiving, distributing and possessing child sexual abuse material, as well as failing to register as a sex offender.

Chief U.S. District Judge Lance E. Walker sentenced Jon A. Hall (aka L.J. (Little Jon) Hall), 30, to 50 years in prison to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $8,000 in restitution. Hall pleaded guilty om April.

According to court records, on Aug. 29, 2022, Maine State Police investigators executed a search warrant in West Gardiner on Hall's person. In the search, they seized an iPhone belonging to Hall, and child sexual abuse material was recovered from that phone. Some of the images and video files depicted Hall sexually abusing a young child while earlier living in another state.

The phone also included messages with a person in Maine while Hall was out of state. In many of those messages, Hall inquired about obtaining nude images of underage children and sent the user child sexual abuse material. There was also evidence of Hall receiving payments for the images via Cash App. The images were of victims under the age of 12 and included images Hall had solicited and received from boys he knew or met online.

In April 2015, Hall pleaded guilty to and was convicted of two counts of possessing sexually explicit material depicting a child under 12 and was notified of the requirement as a Tier III lifetime registrant of the sex offender registry to maintain current registration information.

"Mr. Hall has a lengthy and troubling history that makes it clear that children are in danger as long as he is free," said U.S. Attorney Darcie N. McElwee. "Any sentence, no matter how lengthy, can only go so far in providing justice for such heinous acts inflicted upon children, but I hope it provides comfort to all he victimized. My office will continue to prioritize child exploitation prosecutions to protect Maine children from predators like Mr. Hall."

Homeland Security Investigations and the Maine State Police investigated the case.