Jerry N. Butler III, 20, of Walton pled guilty Tuesday June 23, to receiving child pornography. First Assistant United States Attorney John A. Sarcone III and Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Craig L. Tremaroli, made the announcement.
As part of his guilty plea, Butler admitted that in January and February 2025, he used a social media messaging application to receive child sexual abuse material from an out-of-state minor victim. Butler exchanged approximately 20,000 messages with the victim in which Butler persuaded the victim to create and send to Butler sexually explicit depictions of herself. Butler accomplished this by at times implying to the victim that he would distribute and/or “leak” sexually explicit content of her or would otherwise publicly embarrass her if she did not comply with Butler’s demands.
In addition to those admissions the investigation into Butler revealed that he was involved in a nihilistic violent extremist network, whose members seek to corrupt and exploit vulnerable populations, including minors. Butler was the administrator of an online offshoot of the “764” group that operated across multiple social media channels and whose members engaged in extortion of minors, coercive self-harm, harm to animals, and the production and dissemination of sexually explicit materials.
Those involved with “764” and related networks methodically target vulnerable, underage populations by using social media to encourage the possession, production, and sharing of extreme gore media and child sexual abuse material. Members of extremist groups, including 764, seek to desensitize young people to violence and break down societal norms regarding violence. They normalize the possession, production, and sharing of explicit material and gore material to corrupt and groom their victims toward future violence, gain notoriety among other members of the network, and spread fear for the purpose of accelerating chaos under the extremist ideology with an aim toward the disruption of society.
Butler can no longer hide behind a screen to harm children, Sarcone said. Instead, he now faces a federal prison term of up to 20 years.
At his sentencing on Oct. 16, 2026, Butler faces a term of imprisonment of at least five years and up to 20 years in prison. Butler also faces a fine of up to $250,000 and a term of supervised release of at least five years and up to life. Butler will also be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison. A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statutes the defendant is convicted of violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.
This case was investigated by FBI with the assistance of the New York State Police, Walton Police Department, Broome County Sheriff’s Office, and the FBI Atlanta and Milwaukee field offices.
Project Safe Childhood is a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Child visit https://www.justice.gov/psc
