An Arizona man who allegedly sextorted a 13-year-old Oahu girl Opens in a new tab for more than a year using sexually explicit photos and an Instagram account is scheduled to plead guilty today.
Dustin Hill, 24, was indicted May 16 on one count of sexual exploitation of a child. He was originally charged by criminal complaint April 24 with production/attempted production of child pornography.
He is being held without bail at the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu. Hill previously pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.
From Nov. 2, 2020, through Nov. 15, 2021, Hill allegedly convinced a 13- year-old girl “to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct and for the purpose of transmitting a live visual depiction” of the behavior, according to court records.
Hill lived in Hawaii while he victimized the girl, according to federal court documents.
The girl told federal agents she virtually “met” Hill when he “found and began following her on Instagram,” which led to direct messaging between the two on Instagram.
The girl told the agents and Hawaii law enforcement officers that Hill’s account name was “Keith with a bunch of numbers.” Hill had at least 10 different Instagram accounts, according to federal court documents.
In November 2020, on the girl’s 13th birthday, Hill allegedly told her to send him a picture via Instagram direct messaging “of herself naked, or he would hurt her family members.”
After he had the photo, Hill allegedly told the girl to video-chat with him or he would send the picture to her family and tell them what she did. The girl complied and followed Hill’s sexually explicit instructions.
Months later, Hill allegedly contacted the girl with a screen shot of her from their video chat and threatened to send it to her family if she didn’t do what he asked.
Hill “repeatedly threatened her and coerced her into sending him naked images of herself and engaging in naked video calls with him approximately two to four times per month for over a year,” according to court documents.
Hill gave a statement to federal agents, saying that while on Instagram he “chatted with underage girls, meaning under 18 years old,” and asked them for “nude images,” according to the complaint.
“I would do live video calls with them on Instagram and tell them what to do and poses to do while nude. If they did not want to send images, videos, or do live calls with me I would threaten to expose the images or videos online,” Hill wrote.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall H. Silverberg. Hill is represented by Rene Hermann Heimgartner.
