(Sioux City, IA) — A 31-year-old Hull man has pleaded guilty to federal charges involving the possession of child pornography and the use of artificial intelligence to produce child sexual abuse material.
Evan Marra entered his guilty pleas September 29 in federal court in Sioux City. He pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography and one count of producing, receiving and distributing obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children.
According to court documents and evidence presented at the plea hearing, Marra admitted that between November 1, 2019, and May 14, 2026, he received and possessed child pornography, primarily involving prepubescent boys between the ages of 3 and 12.
Investigators were alerted to Marra’s activity through CyberTips from a cloud-storage provider connected to his cellphone. Authorities identified one image as AI-generated material depicting known minors from the local area.
Search warrants executed on Marra’s social media accounts uncovered 50 videos containing child pornography, along with several AI-generated videos depicting known local victims.
A search of Marra’s electronic devices also uncovered AI-generated child sexual abuse material in which the faces of local victims had been digitally inserted into images depicting sexual abuse.
The case was investigated by the Sioux County Sheriff’s Office and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kraig R. Hamit as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative targeting the exploitation and sexual abuse of children.
Marra remains in custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending sentencing. Sentencing will be scheduled after a presentence investigation report is completed.
Marra faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison and a maximum sentence of 40 years, along with a possible $500,000 fine and at least five years of supervised release following imprisonment.
