Marble Hill man sentenced to 12 years for coercing girls into sending explicit images
FOX23 News at 9 p.m
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo., (KBSI) — A Bollinger County man was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in federal prison for threatening two 13-year-old girls to coerce them into sending him sexually explicit images.
Terry Michael Howard, 21, of Marble Hill pleaded guilty in May in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau to one count of enticing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct.
Howard admitted using Snapchat to communicate with the girls in December 2024, when he was 19. Prosecutors said Howard knew both victims but pretended to be the father of a 13-year-old boy they knew.
Howard threatened to hurt or kill the boy unless the girls sent him sexually explicit material, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri.
The girls called 911 because they feared the boy would be harmed. The Bollinger County Sheriff’s Office began investigating in January 2025, and Howard confessed, prosecutors said. The FBI later located records of the conversations and threats.
Howard told investigators he initially considered his actions a joke and stopped after realizing the girls were frightened.
Following his prison sentence, Howard will serve 20 years of supervised release and will be required to register as a sex offender.
The Bollinger County Sheriff’s Office and FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Hunter prosecuted it as part of the Justice Department’s Project Safe Childhood initiative.
