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SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — A 28-year-old man from Virginia has been sentenced to a possible life prison sentence after he was found guilty of sexually extorting two 14-year-old girls in Layton, Utah.
Ryan Joseph Randolph was arrested in October 2022 in his Gloucester County, Virginia home when a special agent from the Utah Attorney’s General Office contacted the Gloucester County Sheriff’s Office regarding the case.
According to court documents, Randolph initially posed as a young girl to gain the victims’ trust. Once he had that trust, he introduced those girls to another account owned by himself who offered to pay them for sexually explicit pictures. Randolph then extorted the two girls to engage in sexually explicit acts by threatening to send the images and videos of the girls to thousands of people.
Randolph was extradited to Davis County, where he remained pending his trial.
Once the case went to trial in 2024, Randolph was found guilty of two first-degree felony human trafficking of a child, two counts of first-degree felony aggravated sexual extortion of a child, one count of second-degree felony sexual exploitation of a minor, and two counts of second-degree felony enticing a minor through the internet.
The Gloucester County Sheriff’s Office said it took the jury less than six hours to convict him.
Second Judicial District Judge Rita Cornish sentenced Randolph to the possibility of life in prison, which he will serve in the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City.