WASHINGTON — A former Prince George’s County school aide accused in federal and state court of taking and receiving nude photos and videos of his students at school confessed to the crime while being questioned by police.
Deonte Carraway was questioned by detectives in early February after a family member noticed a 9-year-old sent a nude photo to Carraway through the Kik messenger app.
Carraway was arrested the next day and brought in for questioning.
Within five minutes of the interview beginning, the former school aide admitted to asking the 9-year-old to send him a naked photo, according to documents filed in federal court last Friday. Carraway, who consented to being questioned without a lawyer, also agreed to let investigators search his two cellphones.
Over the span of five hours, Carraway answered questions from two detectives and completed a written statement in steps throughout the interview, detailing his interactions with the students.
During this interview, the former school aide named five students he had solicited and received photos and videos of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. He told detectives that in order for the students to be part of the group, they had to watch video of Carraway touching himself inappropriately.
While Carraway admitted to the child pornography, he said that he never had physical contact with the children.
In his written statements, he noted, “I knew what I did would come to light” … “God is mad at me” … and “I know I messed up.”
In the final portion of his written statement, after detectives learned of additional phones and bags that were used by Carraway, offered a final confession. Here are portions of it from the court documents:
“Okay, it’s time I told the truth yes I have videos and yes you will find some on my orange phone basically the same ones. How I get the videos is the kids would send them in the Chat. I would hide them but I really do care for the children. I know it was wrong, I’m a bad person, I’m no child of god for doing this, I know I’m grown. I made a lot of mistakes ….
I only got the orange, white, and little tracfone [phones]. It’s true I directed one video the rest of the videos the kids recorded their selfs…..
you will find videos of the group ….
the videos you see me in are the ones I already had saved in my phone. No matter what the kids say, I have the videos of the group. Everything the group did was recorded, either if its Play fighting, sexual, hide and seek, tag ….
I take full ownership for making A.K.A [the child porn group] and I’m sorry for that ….
For some of the videos the kids used their tablets or cell to send the videos to me and the one at the school was my phone. I know I’m older and I knew it was wrong because kids don’t know better and I just lost it and now it don’t look good on my part.”
Detectives would continue to question Carraway for another four hours.
While Carraway says he did not physically engage with any of the students, prosecutors say at least one victim said the former school aide performed oral sex on him.
Investigators also learned that Carraway provided cellphones to some of the children so they could record themselves. The students also told police the former school aide had at least 10 cellphones that he would hand out to the students at the beginning of the day to record their “dares.” The phones were returned at the end of the day.
Prosecutors say Carraway told the students this activity was a “secret” and would make fake calls to 911 to scare them.
Some of the students used devices provided by parents to communicate with Carraway. Some parents told prosecutors they don’t know from where their children got their cellphones.
The documents filed last week were in response to pretrial motions filed by the defense to suppress Carraway’s statements and the evidence found on two cellphones. The prosecution argues Carraway was in full compliance and signed waivers agreeing to speak with detectives without a lawyer.
Carraway faces eight federal child pornography charges. He also faces an additional 270 charges of child abuse and child pornography in Maryland.
