North Carolina Men Arrested on Child Sexual Abuse Material* and Related Charges

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Johnny Ray Fletcher, 59, of Fayetteville, N.C., and Ali Dawud Muhammad, 39, of Concord, N.C. on 12 total charges connected to the attempted criminal solicitation of a minor and child sexual abuse material.  Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Lexington Police Department and Mount Pleasant Police Department made the arrests in these unrelated cases.  Investigators with U.S. Marshals Service, also members of the state's ICAC Task Force, assisted with these investigations.

Investigators state Fletcher solicited and traveled to meet a person he believed to be a minor for sex.  

Investigators state Muhammad solicited a person he believed to be a minor for sex, encouraged them to produce child sexual abuse material, distributed child sexual abuse material, and sent sexually explicit images to a person he believed to be a minor. 

Fletcher was arrested on July 27, 2022. He is charged with one count of criminal solicitation of a minor (§16-15-342), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment; and one count of attempted criminal sexual conduct with a minor (§16-3-655). 

Muhammad was arrested on August 4, 2022. He is charged with four counts of criminal solicitation of a minor (§16-15-342), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count; one count of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, first degree (§16-15-395), a felony offense punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment; one count of sexual exploitation of a minor, second degree (§16-15-405), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment; and four counts of attempted dissemination of obscene material to a person under age eighteen (§16-15-345), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years on each count. 

These cases will be prosecuted by the Attorney General's Office.

Attorney General Wilson stressed all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty in a court of law.

* Child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, is a more accurate reflection of the material involved in these heinous and abusive crimes. "Pornography" can imply the child was a consenting participant.  Globally, the term child pornography is being replaced by CSAM for this reason.