Chattanooga area businessman accused of drugging, taking explicit photos of underage girls enters plea agreement

Monday, February 3, 2014

Arkansas-North Carolina Live Blog

The Niota, Tenn. businessman who is accused of making and transporting pornography featuring underage girls who were drugged and photographed in Sept. 2012 last week entered an agreement to plea guilty to two of the 11 counts the U.S. government brought against him in September.

Terry Lynn Hayes submitted an agreement to plea guilty to transporting pornography involving a minor and knowingly giving minors - three girls aged 14, 15 and 16 - cocaine and Xanax, according to U.S. court documents.

Those offenses occurred on Aug. 5, 2012, court documents state.

Hayes' plea agreement states that he picked up the three underage girls in Dayton, Tenn., then drove them to his Niota home, where he gave them drugs and took sexually-explicit photos of two of them on a bed.

Court documents state that Hayes knew the girls were minors and admits to texting sexually-explicit photos of two of them to someone in Quantico, Va.

The two charges in Hayes' plea agreement carry a maximum 60 years in prison combined, and up to $2.25 million in fines combined. He will also have to register as a sex offender in the jurisdictions where he lives and works and be under supervised release for a minimum of six years.

Hayes lives in Niota and operates a dirt works business there, and he also operates a similar business in Harvey, La.

His next court date is not set. Hayes' trial was set to begin on Feb. 18.