Baltimore Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Charge for Production of Child Pornography

Baltimore, Maryland – Marcus Street, age 26, of Baltimore, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to enticing and persuading a minor victim to engage in sexually explicit conduct to produce child pornography, which Street admitted he also distributed. 

The guilty plea was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Jonathan F. Lenzner; Special Agent in Charge James R. Mancuso of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Baltimore City’s State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby; Commissioner Michael Harrison of the Baltimore Police Department (BPD); and Baltimore County Sheriff Jay Fisher.

According to Street’s guilty plea, in December 2019, HSI and BPD investigators conducted a forensic review of the of a 14-year-old victim’s cell phone.  The review revealed six 15-second videos of the victim engaged in sexual acts with an adult man.  In some of the videos, a distinctive tattoo on the man’s left forearm is visible.  Further investigation identified Street as the man depicted in each of the videos.

Law enforcement interviewed Street on December 10, 2019, concerning his interaction with the victim.  Street initially claimed that he did not engage in sexual acts with the minor victim.  When law enforcement confronted Street with the video of him engaging in sex acts with a minor, Street stated “oh yeah, I did one time, I ain’t gonna lie I did”.  Street also told law enforcement that he recorded the video.  Following the interview, law enforcement obtained an arrest warrant and Street was arrested on January 6, 2020.  After his arrest, Street was again questioned by law enforcement and admitted to engaging in sexually explicit conduct with the victim, stating, “That was it, that was the last time I did anything with this girl.”

Investigators subsequently executed search warrants on Street’s cell phone, social media account, and on the victim’s social media account.  Review of Street’s cell phone revealed two minutes-long videos of him engaging in sex acts with the victim.  A review of Street’s and the victim’s social media accounts showed that Street had sent shortened versions of those videos, 15 seconds in length, to the victim using social media. 

Street faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and a maximum of 30 years in federal prison for production of child pornography.  U.S. District Judge George L. Russell has scheduled sentencing for August 19, 2021 at 12:30 a.m.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.  For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "Resources" tab on the left of the page.         

Acting United States Attorney Jonathan F. Lenzner commended the HSI, the Office of the Baltimore City State’s Attorney, the Baltimore Police Department, and the Baltimore County Sheriff’s Office for their work in the investigation and thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation for its assistance.  Mr. Lenzner thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel A. Loveland, Jr. and Ayn B. Ducao.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md/project-safe-childhood and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

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