Douglas man sentenced to 15 years for child porn charges

WAYCROSS, Ga. (WALB) - A Coffee County man has been sentenced in federal court after being convicted of child pornography charges, according to the office of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia.

Ashley Marshall Carter, 43, of Douglas, was sentenced to 15 years after a jury found him guilty in June 2022 of one count of distribution of child pornography, and one count of possession of child pornography. The court also ordered Carter to pay $11,000 in restitution, register as a sex offender and serve 12 years of supervised release after the end of his prison sentence.

During a search of Carter’s home in February 2021, he was arrested after investigators removed multiple electronic devices from his home and found more than 17,000 images of child pornography, according to officials.

The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office, with assistance from the Candler County Sheriff’s Office, the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted for the United States by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jennifer Kirkland and Jeremiah Johnson.