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Fannin County District Attorney’s Office secures three-decade prison sentence in child pornography case
By the Office of Fannin County District Attorney, John Skotnik
Feb 27, 2026
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Fannin County, Texas -- On February 26, 2026, the Fannin County District Attorney’s Office secured a three-decade prison sentence for the offenses of Failure of Sex Offender’s Duty to Register, and two counts of Possession of Child Pornography in the case against Christopher Pennington, 41, of Honey Grove. The Honorable Judge Tillett sentenced the defendant to 30 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Pennington is a registered sex offender who had paroled out of prison in 2022 after serving time for Indecency with Child by Sexual Contact. In July of 2024, Sergeant Pruitt with the Honey Grove Police Department received a tip that child pornography had been uploaded to an online social media website from a computer that was located in Honey Grove.

Sergeant Pruitt’s investigation found that person using the internet that was accessing child pornography belonged to registered sex offender Christopher Pennington. Police were able to obtain the pornographic images and determined that they came from the account owned by Pennington.

When Pennington was questioned about the child porn and social media account, he admitted to having the account and also that he had child porn on his electronic device. Possessing the child porn and being on social media were both direct violations of his sex offender registration requirements.

During the sentencing hearing, lead prosecutor Vanessa Vice was able to show the Judge that the defendant knew that he was not supposed to have the account and also knew that the images were of young children.

Further, it was presented to the Court that the Defendant was sending messages to another individual and exchanging images of child porn through this website.
ADA Vice stated that “we commend the Court for handing down a strong sentence that was well deserved. The Defendant was still on parole for sexually abusing children when he reoffended. He knew he was not supposed to have these images or share them online. We are grateful to the Honey Grove Police Department for their hard work investigating this case and for obtaining all of the evidence needed to secure the sentence handed down by Judge Tillett.”

“Repeat offenders of this nature are a danger to our children and our community. A sentence like the one given today ensures that the defendant cannot continue to prey on children and puts those that consume and create such awful material on notice that they will be aggressively prosecuted,” said First Assistant District Attorney Nathan Young.