MARTIN COUNTY MAN SENTENCED TO 60 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON AFTER CONVICTION IN FEDERAL CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CASE
WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE FOR PAROLE UNTIL MIDDLE OF THE 2070s DECADE; STILL FACES A TRIAL IN STATE COURT ON CRIMINAL CHARGES FROM THE SAME CASE
AUGSUT 28, 2023 – written by WADE QUEEN
According to the statement from the Assistant United States Attorney General’s Office for Eastern District of Kentucky; U.S. District Judge Robert Wier sentenced Donald York Jr., 60, of Beauty, KY., in U.S. District Court in Pikeville, KY., after he was convicted of four counts of production and two counts of distributing child pornography in April of this year. The verdict was given after a three day trial.
The press release states that according to the evidence presented at Donald York’s trial, which revealed that Donald York coerced a 15-year-old female victim, who was in his care, to engage in sexually explicit conduct so that he could produce images. Donald York then uploaded the images to a pornographic website.
According to federal court documents, one incident involved the girl performing oral sex on an adult male, and three other incidents involved the girl using a sex toy, soda bottle and metal water bottle in sexual performances.
The sex crimes occurred from September 2019 to April 2020.
Since Donald York’s federal indictment in June 2022, he has been in the custody of U.S. Marshals and incarcerated in the Pike County Detention Center in Pikeville.
Donald York is still facing state criminal charges; as a Martin County grand jury initially indicted Donald York on state criminal charges on August 5, 2021. The indictment charged Donald York with first-degree rape of a minor, first-degree unlawful transaction with a minor, second-degree unlawful transaction with a minor, and possession/viewing of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor.
The Martin County indictment also accused Donald York of giving the female juvenile Gabapentin (Neurontin) and marijuana before the sexual performances.
The state case against Donald York has been on hold pending the outcome of the federal trial. But in a recent interview, Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Matt Runyon said Donald York would stand trial in Martin County on any state charge different from the federal charges.
“You can’t charge a defendant in two different court systems on the same charges, but you can if the charges are different,” Runyon said. “According to what I see, at least three of the charges the state has are separate from those in the federal indictments.”
The FBI, Kentucky State Police and the Martin County Sheriff’s Office conducted the child porn investigation; and those who were specifically named in the press release statement jointly announcing the sentence were as the following: Carlton S. Shier IV, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Brian Jones, Acting Special Agent in Charge, FBI Louisville Field Office; Col. Phillip Burnett, Commissioner, Kentucky State Police; and Sheriff John Kirk, Martin County Sherriff’s Office.
Federal officials said that Donald York must serve 85% of his prison sentence under federal law. Upon his release, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for life.
But mathematically speaking, the federal sentence will leave Donald York the rest of his life in federal prison, as he would be at the age of 111 years old to be eligible for parole. And that does not count any prison sentence he gets in his state trial.
