Tennessee Woman Arrested on South Carolina Child Sexual Abuse Material* Charges

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Tyhesha Deonta Sinclair (Jones), age 36, of Cleveland, TN, on eight charges connected to the sexual exploitation of a minor. The U.S. Marshals Service made the arrest.

Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force investigators with the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office received a CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). ICAC Task Force investigators with the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office investigated the tip, which led them to Sinclair (Jones). Investigators state she distributed child sexual abuse material while she was in Walterboro, SC.  

Sinclair (Jones) was arrested on March 1, 2022, in Cleveland, TN and will be extradited to South Carolina. She is charged with eight counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, second degree (§16-15-405), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count.

This case 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.