A 24-year-old Virginia man has been sentenced to 40 years in federal prison after using a stolen Snapchat account to threaten and sexually exploit dozens of underage girls.
Malachi Morgan Thomas of Woodbridge pleaded guilty in April to one count of producing child sexual abuse material and one count of possessing it. Federal prosecutors said his campaign targeted approximately 41 girls between the ages of 12 and 17 over several months in 2020.
Thomas gained access to a Snapchat account that he had previously hacked and stolen from another minor. He then used the account to contact girls and pressure them into creating and sending sexually explicit images and videos, while some victims were ordered to engage in explicit conduct during live video calls.
Threats were central to the scheme. Thomas falsely presented himself as the leader of a criminal organization and told victims that complying with his demands would keep them safe. When they resisted, he threatened to compromise their accounts or physically harm them and their relatives.
Prosecutors said Thomas knew that several of the girls were particularly vulnerable. Some suffered from anxiety or depression, others had previously experienced sexual abuse, and at least one victim was in foster care. Court records also show that several victims told him they were harming themselves because of what was happening.
The abuse was not confined to online interactions. In June 2020, Thomas traveled to one victim’s home and sexually assaulted her, recording the assault and storing the video in his Snapchat account.
A month later, Thomas went to Potomac Mills Mall in Woodbridge intending to meet another girl he had targeted online. Her father had discovered what was happening and appeared at the mall instead, leading to police involvement and the seizure of Thomas’ phone.
Investigators later found the recording of the earlier assault on one of his devices. After Thomas was arrested in October 2020, police searched his Woodbridge residence and discovered another phone containing dozens of sexually explicit images and videos involving minors, including recordings of assaults against two victims.
Thomas had already faced prosecution in Virginia for some of his offline offenses. He received an active 30-year prison sentence for the rape and forcible sodomy of two minors in Fairfax County and for the online solicitation of another victim in Prince William County.
The later federal prosecution addressed the much broader group of girls he exploited online. Thirteen additional federal charges were dropped under his plea agreement, although court records indicate that Thomas agreed the underlying allegations were true.
The FBI’s Washington Field Office investigated the federal case, with prosecutors from the Justice Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia handling the prosecution.
Thomas’ new 40-year federal sentence follows years of state and federal proceedings stemming from the 2020 investigation. The federal judgment specifically holds him accountable for the online exploitation campaign that reached approximately 41 underage victims through the compromised Snapchat account.