A man who prosecutors say terrorized dozens of young girls to obtain sexually explicit material — and was previously convicted in Fairfax County of the sexual assault of two minors—was recently sentenced to 40 years in prison on federal charges.
Malachi Morgan Thomas, 24, of Woodbridge, pleaded guilty in April to one count of production of child sexual assault material and one count of possession. He was sentenced on Friday (Sept. 25) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
“Malachi Thomas exploited dozens of girls through threats, coercion, and devastating sexual abuse,” A. Tysen Duva, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in a release. “His tactics — leveraging hacked accounts, fear of physical harm, psychological manipulation, and physical assaults — underscore the gravity of his abusive and horrific crimes. This defendant will spend the next four decades in prison and never harm another child.”
According to court documents, thirteen additional charges were dropped in exchange for Thomas’ guilty plea, though as part of the agreement, he agreed to admit they were true. Over a roughly seven-month period, he used a hacked Snapchat account that belonged to a minor girl in Virginia to coerce about 41 girls between the ages of 12 and 17 to send him sexually explicit photos and videos.
Court documents show messages in which Thomas portrayed himself as the leader of a criminal organization and threatened to hack victims’ accounts and violently harm the victims and members of their families. He also said he had killed or otherwise hurt other people in the past.
A statement of facts signed by the defense and prosecution as part of the plea agreement notes that many of the victims already suffered from depression, anxiety, or other mental health issues. At least one was in foster care. Several victims told him they were engaging in self-harm because of what was happening to them.
Prior to the federal charges, Thomas had already been convicted of state-level charges for offenses in Fairfax and Prince William counties.
In June 2020, prosecutors say Thomas assaulted a victim in her home. Police later discovered that he had recorded and saved the video in his Snapchat. A month later, Thomas traveled to a mall in Prince William County to meet a victim, but the victim’s father met him instead. Police took the father’s statement and seized Thomas’ phone.
By October 2020, Thomas was arrested by Fairfax County Police. His Prince William County home was searched, and dozens of sexually explicit images were found on his phone.
“For his rape and forcible sodomy of the two minor victims in Fairfax County, and his online solicitation of his victim in Prince William County, the defendant was sentenced to an active term of imprisonment of 30 years,” prosecutors wrote in court documents. “Until now, the defendant has not, however, been held accountable for the over 40 young girls who he threatened, coerced, and sexually exploited online and, in the case of [one particular victim], in person.”
