A federal court in San Antonio sentenced a man to 30 years in prison for sexual exploitation of a minor, the U.S. Department of Justice announced in a news release Thursday.
In May 2023, Markus Hudson Jr., 28, of Sacramento, California, coerced a woman he met on TikTok to sexually assault a 6-year-old in Uvalde, according to the release.
The DOJ said Hudson threatened the woman by saying he would send nude images of her to her family and friends.
The release states the woman complied and sexually assaulted the child during a video call with Hudson, who was secretly recording her using a second phone. Hudson then sent images of the assault to one of the woman’s former classmates after the woman refused to speak to him.
In a separate instance in June 2024, Hudson told a 14-year-old on Snapchat he had nude images of her and threatened to “shoot up her house unless she did what he wanted,” the DOJ said.
He threatened to distribute images of the 14-year-old unless they sexually assaulted another minor, the release states. After multiple threats, the teen complied.
Hudson recorded the teen engaged in sexual activity with two other minors and an adult and sent the images to the 14-year-old’s classmates, according to the DOJ.
Hudson was arrested on Dec. 13, 2024, and charged in a five-count indictment in January 2025. The DOJ said he pleaded guilty in April 2026 to a count of production of child pornography and a count of coercion and enticement of a child.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. According to the release, the DOJ launched the nationwide initiative in May 2006 “to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.”
In the release, U.S. attorney Justin R. Simmons said similar investigations usually begin “because victims of the sexual abuse and exploitation speak out about the exploitation they have endured.”
“Social media platforms have become an incredibly dangerous playground in which child predators victimize our most vulnerable and exploit them with sickening demands, that exponentially increase the victimization,” Simmons said.
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