Man sentenced after finding childish sexual material in online account

David Stickler. (Photo courtesy of Columbus Division of Police)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — A Columbus man has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison for possessing material depicting minors engaged in sexual activity.

David A. Stickler, 35, pleaded guilty last week to one count of third-degree solicitation of sexually motivated content involving minors or disabled persons and two counts of fourth-degree illegal use of minors or disabled persons in content containing nudity or in performances.

Stickler was charged in November 2023 after a tip from the file-sharing service Dropbox alerted law enforcement that someone had uploaded several files depicting child sexual abuse. According to court documents, the account had an email address with Stickler’s first name and full last name. A phone number registered to Dropbox was also registered to Stickler. Through a subpoena, investigators determined that the IP address associated with the Dropbox account matched Stickler’s home address.

At the time of his arrest, Stickler was already on the state sex offender registry for a 2014 case in which he pleaded guilty to second-degree pimping.

Stickler was sentenced to four years and 11 months in prison on Friday. He received four years for pimping, which he must serve afterwards, and an 11-month sentence for illegal use of a minor for nudity-themed material. He received a concurrent 11-month sentence for illegal use of a minor.

Stickler will have to serve five years of probation after completing his prison sentence. He will also have to register as a Level 2 sex offender, which means he must report to the local sheriff’s office every 180 days for 25 years.