NEWPORT NEWS — The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced Thursday two enlisted Army personnel formerly stationed at Fort Eustis were sentenced to prison for convictions relating to child sexual abuse material.
According to court documents, from February 2023 through April 2023, 23-year-old Hayden Scott Carpenter and 21-year-old Isaiah Luke Hood used social media platforms to engage in sexually graphic conversations with minors. An investigation revealed that Carpenter and Hood requested and received sexually graphic images and videos of the minors and sent sexually graphic images and videos to the minors, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said, victimizing dozens of minors.
According to officials, Hood pled guilty to production of CSAM on May 28 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison Oct. 1. Carpenter pled guilty to coercion and enticement of a child Aug. 6 and was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison.
The Washington Field Office of the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Devon Heath prosecuted, according to a press release.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, 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 U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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 Childhood, please visit justice.gov/psc.
