COLUMBUS, Ohio – A Peoria Heights man has pleaded guilty in federal court to traveling to Ohio for sexual activity with a teenager.
The Southern District of Ohio’s United States Attorney’s Office says 30-year-old Immanuel Nellum faces ten years to life in prison. Nellum was arrested and charged in Muskingum county on August 19th, 2025.
Nellum was convicted of coercion and enticement of a minor, and traveling interstate with the intent to engage in unlawful sexual activity with a minor.
Prosecutors say Nellum met the female victim on the online app Friend when she was 12 years old. An online relationship was established from August 2023 to August 2025, which included nude images and videos of themselves exchanged.
Prosecutors say Nellum’s phone contained more than 141,000 messages between him and the victim, with around 5,500 attachments. Some of the messages and attachments were on the social media app, Snapchat.
Nellum reportedly confessed to traveling to Ohio to engage in sex acts with the minor, and was found with the minor at a hotel by police in Zanesville, Ohio. Prosecutors say Nellum’s phone showed that he made 75 videos of his encounters with the minor at the hotel.
A sentencing date has not been set.
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