CCSO investigation leads to 27-year child porn sentence

A North Carolina man was sentenced on Tuesday, May 12, to 324 months in federal prison, to be followed by 20 years of supervised release for producing child pornography of an Arkansas minor and for transporting a phone containing child pornography across state lines.

According to court documents, Brian Issac Hughes,  21, communicated with a 15-year-old female through social media and arranged to travel to Arkansas to engage in sex acts with her.  In April 2025, Hughes flew from North Carolina to Arkansas and picked up the minor near her school before transporting her to a nearby hotel where he had sex with the minor and produced explicit images and videos of the act. Later the same night, Hughes distributed the produced imagery of the minor on social media.

A subsequent search of Hughes’s cellphone revealed numerous child pornography files, including files of children as young as 4. Investigators also located social media chats in which Hughes distributed and received child pornography files with other online users and at least one chat thread in which Hughes posed as a 16-year-old female to trade files with another minor female.

Hughes was indicted by a Grand Jury in the Western District of Arkansas in April 2025 and entered a plea of guilty in November 2025.   

Homeland Security Investigations and the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Devon Still, formerly a deputy prosecutor in Carroll County, prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States. U.S District Judge Timothy L. Brooks presided over the sentencing hearing in Fayetteville.