Ogden man who manipulated teen into sending explicit photos given 10 years in prison

ST. GEORGE — A Weber County man will serve 10 years in federal prison for manipulating a child into sending him sexually explicit photographs and videos.

Tyler Justin Pitt, 28, of Ogden, was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge Ann Marie McIff Allen. After his 10 years in prison, he will serve a lifetime on probation, court documents show.

Pitt was arrested in 2024 after a southern Utah mother learned that her 15-year-old daughter had sent nude photographs and videos to an adult man, federal prosecutors said. The adult, identified as Pitt, had also sent explicit photos and videos of himself to the minor.

According to court documents, the two had met on Snapchat in December 2023, and the girl told Pitt she was 16 years old. For about six months, the two exchanged sexual messages and, at Pitt's request, the victim sent multiple pictures and videos of her in various states of undress or sexually explicit poses.

Prosecutors allege that Pitt convinced the girl they were in an exclusive dating relationship, despite the fact that he had a live-in girlfriend and other online relationships. Although the victim said she didn't want to take or send the nude photos and videos, she did so at Pitt's request because she "wanted to be a good girlfriend," a sentencing memorandum said.

In recovered messages from Pitt's phone, he discussed his intention and desire to sexually abuse the girl, court documents state. In audio messages he sent to her, Pitt acknowledged she was a minor, saying "I know it's wrong to be doing this because you're only 16," prosecutors said.

Police searched Pitt's residence in August 2024 and seized several electronic devices. Agents discovered additional images and videos he had exchanged with numerous females, some underage, on several different apps. There were also 22 images of child sexual abuse material, not of the victim, on his phone, that he appeared to have received via X, according to court documents.

Pitt pleaded guilty in February to coercion and enticement and receipt of child sexual abuse material. A charge of production of child sexual abuse material was dismissed.

"I used a facility or means of interstate commerce, namely the internet, to knowingly persuade, induce, entice and coerce a person I knew to be under the age of 18 to engage in illegal sexual activity," Pitt said in his plea statement.

In a sentencing memorandum, federal prosecutors argued for a 12.5-year prison term, saying Pitt "systematically groomed and exploited a child to produce child pornography and send it to him."

Prosecutors also said Pitt had secretly taken photos of adults and minors at his apartment complex's swimming pool, which was located just outside his apartment, and his search history included terms indicative of child sexual abuse material.

"Pitt's phone contents (show) this was not a singular incident but instead part of a larger pattern of child exploitation offenses," prosecutors said.

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