Man who extorted Tri-Cities girl for nude photos sentenced to decades in prison

A Michigan man who extorted a 14-year-old girl in Kennewick to take nude photos was sentenced Thursday in the U.S. Courthouse in Richland to 28 years in prison.

U.S. Judge Mary Dimke also sentenced Andrew Steven Otto to pay about $30,000 in restitution and ordered probation for the rest of his life.

Otto was 24 when he badgered and threatened the Kennewick girl and also an 11-year-old Illinois girl into sending him nude photos of themselves. Investigators also found multiple additional electronic conversations between Otto and other underage minors in which he requested sexual photos.

“The level of force, fraud and coercion in the text messages and Snapchat communications from defendant purporting to be multiple different accounts is truly astounding and differentiates defendant from other defendants who have sought child pornography from minor victims via remote means,” Laurel Holland, assistant U.S. attorney in Eastern Washington, said in a court document.

Otto pleaded guilty to two counts of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography of other children.

“Defendant was cunning in his communications” via text messages and Snapchat with both of the girls who sent him nude photos, said Holland.

In November 2023, he started grooming the Kennewick girl with messages telling her she was beautiful and presenting himself as a self-deprecating, generous 15-year-old, Holland said.

He gained her trust to obtain personal details such as where she lived, her phone number and her lack of dating experience. He told her he wanted to have a relationship and run away from her.

That escalated to requests sent day-after-day of what he really wanted — sexually explicit images, Holland said.

The Kennewick girl’s naïveté in her responses to his requests was obvious, with messages initially saying she would send him a photo of her face and refusing to send him nude images.

Otto then created an account claiming to be one of his ex-girlfriends. The “ex-girlfriend” berated the Kennewick girl, sent message after message saying “ANSWER ME,” and then “OR ELSE,” and counting down toward threatened action to pressure her to repeatedly send nude photos.

The “ex-girlfriend” threatened to have Otto arrested or killed if the teen did not send the photos he wanted. The messages included photos of the teen’s neighborhood and a threat that nudes the girl had already sent would be posted on her school’s website.

“Defendant appealed to Minor 1’s young, tender heart and exploited her selflessness for his own sexual desires,” Holland said.

In December 2023, the mother of the Kennewick teen found the online messages and reported them to the Kennewick Police Department.

Further investigation turned up Otto’s similar messages to the 11-year-old girl in Illinois, some of which he sent claiming to be his sister, according to court documents.

Otto was arrested in May 2024 in Escanaba, Mich.

The defense requested a sentence of 25 years.

The prosecution said a sentence of 35 years was justified, given Otto’s pattern of lying about his age, grooming his victims and then threatening their physical and mental well-being to get them to send sexually explicit images.

The sentence Otto received included 23 years for producing child pornography and five years for possessing child pornography.