KENTUCKY MAN SENTENCED FOR 40 YEARS FOR ENTICING BLOUNT COUNTY TEENAGER
Blount County, Tennessee – Blount County Sheriff James Lee Berrong is pleased to announce that Nathaniel Covington, 27, of Louisville, Kentucky was sentenced to 40 years and six months in federal prison after enticing a Blount County girl online.
The Blount County Sheriff’s involvement in this case began on June 14, 2022 when an SRO took a report of a missing 14-year-old girl. Sheriff’s Office investigators began searching for the girl and tracked her to Louisville, Kentucky. Officers with the Louisville Police Department went to Covington’s residence and spoke to a family member who said he had seen the girl with Nathaniel, but they were no longer there.
On June 16, 2022, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office in Indiana notified BCSO investigators that they located the girl, and she was with Nathaniel Covington. Both individuals were taken into custody. The girl was returned to her family in Blount County, and Nathaniel was arrested and charged with crimes against a minor in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana. The FBI took over the case because Covington traveled with the girl across state lines.
Following Covington’s crimes against the 14-year-old girl, BCSO investigators took warrants out on Covington for especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor and kidnapping, but since Covington was sentenced federally and will spend more than 40 years in federal prison, his charges in Tennessee will be absorbed into his federal prison sentence.
For additional information about the federal case against Nathaniel Covington, click here to read the press release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s for the Western District of Kentucky.
