Alex Ryan Payne, a 32-year-old Owensboro man, was formally sentenced Monday to 70 years in prison for 19 charges related to obtaining sexually explicit images from minors and possession of child pornography. He was found guilty of the charges in October by a Daviess County grand, which at the time recommended a 17-year sentence.
Payne was found guilty of six counts of use of a minor in a sexual performance (minor less than 16 years old), one count of use of a minor in a sexual performance (minor less than 18 years old) and 10 counts of possession or viewing of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor.
In October, the jury recommended some of the sentences run concurrently while others were consecutive.
Monday’s sentencing was handed out by Daviess Circuit Judge Lisa Payne Jones. According to Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Van Meter, Jones located a case law that noted if there is more than one victim in a case, the sentences must run consecutively — which led to the 70-year sentence.
“The change was because of the law, which states that when there are two or more victims of the type of sex crimes that (Payne) was convicted of, the sentences must run consecutively,” Van Meter said.
Investigations for the case began in 2018 when one of the minors in the situation vocalized the incidents, Van Meter said. After searching Payne’s residence, they were able to find pictures leading back to three additional victims and one that was unidentified, according to Van Meter.
Van Meter said that had it not been for the investigation led by Brad Youngman (who was an officer with the Daviess County Sheriff’s Office at the time but now serves as the lead officer for the Daviess County Public Schools Police Department), the case would not have been where it is today, ending with a conviction.
“This case was complex for many reasons — there was a lot of evidence, the number of victims involved, and especially because many of the victims were local and I was able to identify and speak to them about what had happened to them,” Youngman said. “You don’t usually see that in online crimes because the victims could be anywhere.”
