Online Predator Who Enticed Minors to Create Child Pornography Sentenced to Over a Quarter of a Century in Prison

A man who convinced two minor females from other states to record and send him child pornography was sentenced April 30, 2024, to 28 years in federal prison.

Alex McClanahan, age 21, from Dubuque, Iowa, received the prison term after a September 7, 2023 guilty plea to one count of sexual exploitation of children.

In a plea agreement, McClanahan admitted that in 2022 he had sexually explicit conversations over Instagram with a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old. He also admitted that he requested or persuaded the 13-year-old to record herself performing sexually explicit conduct, and she complied. In November 2022, law enforcement officers seized McClanahan's cell phone and found dozens of sexually explicit videos and photos depicting the 15-year-old involved in sexually explicit conduct. In all, investigators also found approximately 700 videos containing child pornography on McClanahan's phone.

McClanahan was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams. McClanahan was sentenced to 336 months' imprisonment. He was ordered to make $33,000 in restitution to child victims depicted in videos and photos he possessed. He must also serve a 5-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

McClanahan is being held in the United States Marshal's custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

The case was investigated by the Dubuque County Sheriff's Department and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jason Norwood and Dan Chatham.

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

The case file number is 23-CR-1010-CJW-MAR.

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