Carson City arrests: Man jailed last month booked for additional child pornography charges
Submitted by Jeff Munson on Thu, 11/03/2022 - 1:52pm
A 21-year-old man jailed late last month for alleged possession of pornographic images of a child had additional felony charges added Wednesday, according to the Carson City Sheriff's Office.
Alexander Roman Marchant, who remains in jail following an Oct. 25 arrest, was booked for alleged use of a minor under the age of 14 to produce pornography and possession of visual pornography of a person under the age of 16. A bail amount of $140,000 was added.
Merchant was originally booked into Carson City jail following an investigation through the Nevada Department of Parole and Probation. He was charged with alleged felony possession of visual pornography of a person under the age of 16.
According to the booking report, the Carson City Sheriff's Office was contacted by a Parole and Probation officer who explained he placed Merchant into custody for violation of conditions of his parole and probation. The officer explained the man is on supervision for sex crimes against children stemming from convictions out of California. The officer said part of Merchant's conditions of probation are search and seizure of his property.
The officer said he reviewed two cell phones in Merchant's possession and said he located sexually explicit photos of female juveniles estimated to be 12 years of age. The officer also said he located multiple sexually explicit text message conversations between Merchant and a female juvenile estimate to be around 12 years of age, the arrest report states.
Due to this located activity, Parole and Probation requested the assistance with performing forensic extractions of the contents of the cell phones and review of possible criminal activity Merchant was allegedly engaging.
CCSO had the contents of the cell phones downloaded for review. CCSO investigators located multiple images that appear to be downloaded off the internet of a female child estimated to be 12 years of age portrayed in stages of undress and sexual poses, according to the booking report.
Merchant was taken into custody and the investigation continued. On Oct. 25, a Carson City Sheriff's Office detective went to the jail to interview the suspect and read him his Miranda rights. The man agreed and said he understood his rights and wished to continue to speak with the detective. Merchant admitted he was having sexually explicit conversations with a 14-year-old female who he identified by name, the report states.
Merchant told the detective he was the girl's boyfriend. He admitted he began having conversations with the child when she was 13-years-old. He admitted the conversations developed to being sexually explicit in nature, the report states. He admitted he did not hide his age and that the child knew he was 21-years-old, according to the report. The suspect also admitted to having sexually explicit conversations with the child and admitted to asking for and receiving sexually explicit full nude images from the child. He also admitted to sending sexually explicit images of himself to the child, the report states.
Through the interview and the evidence located on his cell phone, the CCSO detective was able to positively identify the juvenile he had been communicating with. The child resides in another state on the East Coast. The child's guardian verified the child's age and that she turned 14-years-old in August 2022.
Evidence revealed the man was having sexually explicit message conversations, voice conversations and Facetime conversations with the child. Through metadata review, he was requesting and encouraging the child to engage in explicit sexual activities in May 2022 when the child was 13 years of age. The child provided sexually explicit images and video of herself to that man at his request when she was 13 years of age, the report states.
He was booked for the additional charges for use of a minor under the age of 14 to produce pornography and booked for an additional charge of possession of visual pornography of a child under 16 since this child has been positively identified as a different victim in this investigation, the report states.
The report notes there are other sexually explicit conversations between Merchant and other possible child victims. The case has been forward to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force to assist with attempting to identify other possible victims.
— All information for the crime log (unless otherwise noted) comes from the arrest reports supplied by the Carson City Sheriff's Office, and is considered by law to be public information. All subjects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The policy of Carson Now is to name anyone who is arrested for a felony offense.
