Martin County Man Sentenced to 60 Years in Prison
By Lilly Adkins
BSN Associate Editor
PIKEVILLE —A Martin County man who was convicted in April following a three-day trial, was sentenced on Thursday in Pikeville Federal Court by U.S. District Judge Robert Wier to serve 60 years in prison.
Donald York, 60, of Beauty, was convicted by a jury in April of four counts of production of child pornography and two counts of distributing child pornography.
A release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office said evidence presented at his trial, York coerced a 15-year-old female victim, who was in his care, to engage in sexually explicit conduct so that he could produce images of that conduct. York then uploaded some of the images to a pornographic website.
Under federal law, York must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence and upon his release, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for life, the release said.
Prior to his arrest, York also operated a blog on Facebook regarding news throughout Martin County. The last post made to the page was on April 27, 2020. He also had a website, where he posted news and videos of meetings throughout the county, which is no longer up.
A six-count Superseding indictment was issued Jan. 26, for York, who was originally indicted in Pikeville Federal Court on June 9, 2022, for three counts of sex related offenses involving a minor.
The Grand Jury charges on or about Dec. 30, 2019; Jan. 2, 2020, and Apr. 6, 2020, York allegedly employed, used, persuaded, induced, enticed and coerced a minor female to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct which was produced using materials that had been shipped and transported in interstate and foreign commerce.
On or about Dec. 30, 2019 and Jan. 4, 2020, York allegedly distributed by computer, the production of such a visual depiction of the minor in sexually explicit conduct.
Beginning on or about Sept. 1, 2019, and continuing until April 6, 2020, the exact date unknown, York allegedly employed, used, persuaded, induced, enticed and coerced a minor female to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct which was produced using materials that had been shipped and transported in interstate and foreign commerce.
Beginning on or about Sept. 1, 2019 and continuing to Jan. 28, 2020, the exact date unknown, York allegedly coerced a minor female to engage in sexually explicit conduct, specifically, the minor female performing oral sex on an adult male for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct and the depiction was transmitted using any means and facility of interstate and foreign commerce.
The investigation was conducted by FBI, Kentucky State Police and the Martin County Sheriff’s Office. The United States was represented in the case by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Justin Blankenship and Jason Parman.