A Nashville man who dressed as Spider-Man while washing windows at a local children's hospital was sentenced to 105 years in prison on Monday for child pornography and molestation, federal prosecutors said.
Jarratt A. Turner, 36, of Nashville, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for multiple instances of production of child pornography and transportation of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Don Cochran for the Middle District of Tennessee.
“The sentence imposed by the Court should insure that this defendant will never have another opportunity to inflict his perverted sexual desires upon another innocent child,” said Cochran.
According to court records, Turner befriended two families who had children, including a toddler boy and an infant girl, and offered to babysit the children.
Between October 2014 and May 2015, records show, Turner took sexually explicit images and videos of the toddler girl on 10 different occasions and of the infant boy on six different occasions, while in his basement apartment in Nashville. The sexually explicit material included depictions of himself molesting the two children, who were between the ages of 12 and 31 months at the time.
After making the recordings, Turner distributed the images via the internet to other like-minded individuals and in an attempt to avoid detection of law enforcement, he only used publicly available Wi-Fi networks to collect and distribute child pornography, the documents continue.
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With the help of a manager of a business where Turner frequently accessed the internet, prosecutors say, law enforcement officers were able to identify the defendant more quickly.
Court records also reference Turner’s characteristic behavior in attempting to access other vulnerable children by dressing as Spider-Man when washing windows at a local children’s hospital, during the time he was raping the two young children.
“Children of this community are a little safer today with this sexual predator behind bars,” said Assistant Special Agent in Charge Robert Hammer, who oversees Homeland Security Investigation’s operations in Tennessee. “The fact he would film, and then upload to the internet, videos of himself molesting an infant and toddler, then take elaborate steps to conceal his activities, represents the extreme danger he posed to the community.”
Turner was charged on June 1, 2015, with 16 counts of Production of Child Pornography and Transportation of Child Pornography. He pleaded guilty to all counts of the indictment on March 20, 2017.
He was sentenced Monday by visiting U.S. District Court Judge Marvin E. Aspen.
Reach Natalie Neysa Alund at nalund@tennessean.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.
