Marquis Drakeford Bynum, 45, a Charlotte Pedophile, was sentenced today to 144 months in prison for possessing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) involving a prepubescent kid and for breaching his federal supervised release, as announced by Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. mandated that Marquis Drakeford Bynum undergo a lifetime of supervised release, register as a sex offender upon his release from incarceration, and remit $33,000 in compensation.
James C. Barnacle, Jr., Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Charlotte Division, collaborates with U.S. Attorney Ferguson to make the statement.
This case originated from Marquis Drakeford Bynum’s breach of the conditions of his federal supervised release, which was instituted after his 2007 conviction for the transportation and possession of CSAM. On August 16, 2023, the U.S. Probation Office (USPO) executed a search of Marquis Drakeford Bynum’s residence in accordance with his probationary conditions, as documented in court papers. Probation authorities recovered two mobile phones and a flash drive during the search. The U.S. Probation Office and the FBI conducted a forensic analysis of the data, uncovering thousands of photographs and videos illustrating the sexual exploitation of children as young as toddlers. Marquis Drakeford Bynum faced new federal accusations and, on April 10, 2024, he entered a guilty plea for possession of child pornography involving juveniles under the age of 12.
Marquis Drakeford Bynum is in federal custody. He will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.
In making today’s announcement, U.S. Attorney Ferguson thanked the FBI for its work on the case and commended the USPO for their invaluable assistance investigating a sex offender.
Assistant United States Attorney Kimlani Ford of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.
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