U.S. Senior District Judge Thomas B. Russell ordered Dayton Jones to serve eight years in federal prison Tuesday as part of a 2021 plea deal on child pornography charges.
According to court records Jones received the sentence after entering a guilty plea to one count of production of child pornography-related to the October 2014 sexual assault of an unconscious 15-year-old male at a party on Lafayette Road. The investigators stated that Jones recorded the assault on his cellphone and then posted the video on social media. As a part of the plea agreement, a 10-year sentence was recommended for Jones, with Judge Russell imposing eight years because Jones has been incarcerated since he was charged in federal court.
The Lexington Herald-Leader reports U.S. Attorney Jo Lawless said the government agreed to recommend a sentence under the federal minimum of 15 years last year after Jones gave authorities information about drug activity in jail and additional information about the 2014 assault case that helped fill in blanks for police.
Jones was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2016 after he accepted a plea deal on one count of first-degree sodomy in Christian Circuit Court. Jones was also sentenced to four years for one count of first-degree wanton endangerment and one year for recording the assault on video. The sentences were set to run consecutively for a total of 15 years. Former Governor Matt Bevin commuted Jones’ sentence to time served the day he left office in December of 2019.
Jones’ three co-defendants—Colton Cavanaugh, Tyler Perry, and Sam Miller—also accepted plea deals in circuit court and they did not receive any relief from their sentences from former Governor Bevin.
