CLINTON TWP. (WWJ) – A Macomb County man is looking at three decades behind bars for coercing minors, including a 13-year-old girl, into sending him sexually explicit photos of themselves.
Alexander James Decker of Clinton Township has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for sexual exploitation of children, U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison's office announced Wednesday.
The 21-year-old pleaded guilty in June to meeting the 13-year-old girl through Snapchat back in the spring of 2021 and requesting her to send him sexually explicit images of herself, according to Ison's office.
When the girl stopped sending him images, officials say Decker threatened to distribute the messages she'd previously sent him.
He also threatened to have $700 worth of pizza delivered to her family's house and said he'd mail feces to the house if she didn't comply.
Decker also threatened and coerced several other minors into sending him sexually explicit images, according to Ison.
In June he pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation. During his plea hearing, he "acknowledged that through his actions, he qualified as a repeat and dangerous sex offender," Ison's office said.
"This offender terrorized and tortured minors to obtain sexually explicit images from them. This significant sentence shows that we will continue to work to protect the most vulnerable and to make the Internet a safer place for our children," Ison said, per a press release.
James Tarasca, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Detroit Field Office, said Decker "hid behind the anonymity of the internet to target, sexually exploit, and threaten children in the most reprehensible of ways."
