A San Antonio woman, Ashley Nicole Smith, 41, was sentenced today in a federal court in San Antonio to 30 years in prison for production of child pornography.

According to court documents, Smith sexually assaulted a minor child on multiple occasions, beginning when the child was just days old in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in November 2019, and continuing until the child was 18 months old, through March 2021. Smith produced videos of these sexual assaults and distributed the files to her boyfriend via text messages.

Smith was arrested on March 4, 2021, and subsequently charged in a 10-count indictment on March 17, 2021. She pleaded guilty on August 28, 2024.

In addition to the 30-year prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia ordered Smith to serve 30 years of supervised release and explicitly prohibited her from having any contact with the victim. Smith was also ordered to pay $50,000 to the AVAA fund for victims of child exploitation and trafficking offenses, and to forfeit the devices used to produce the child exploitation material.

U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons for the Western District of Texas made the announcement. The case was investigated by the FBI and the San Antonio Police Department, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Thompson prosecuting the case.