GUILDERLAND — Blake Spears, 40, of Westmere, was sentenced on Friday to 300 months in prison for sexually exploiting a child.

The announcement was made by Acting United States Attorney Antoinette T. Bacon and Thomas F. Relford, special agent in charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

On Dec. 1, 2018, Spears had admitted that he used his phone to video-record himself masturbating while standing over a sleeping child, according to the announcement from the United States Department of Justice; he also admitted to using a phone messaging application to distribute, to others, videos depicting the sexual abuse of other children.

In imposing sentence, United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino found that Spears was a repeat and dangerous sex offender, and had repeatedly exploited a minor. She also imposed a 20-year term of supervised release, to begin after the 300-month term of imprisonment, and ordered Spears to pay $8,000 in restitution to people whose abuse was depicted in images that Spears possessed.

Spears, who had lived at 15 Harmony Hill Road at the time he was detained in February 2019, was accused of sending “numerous video files and pictures containing child pornography involving minor females” to other members of a Kik group, which is similar to a chat room, the complaint said.

In August 2019, Spears was indicted on charges of sexually exploiting a child, and child pornography distribution and possession.

The Grand Jury charged that Spears “did employ, use, persuade, induce, entice and coerce” a child born in 2008 — who would have been 9 or 10 at the time of the Dec. 1, 2018, incident — “to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing visual depictions,” according to papers from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.

A previously filed criminal complaint alleged that Spears used the Kik phone messaging application to distribute child pornography in December 2018. On Feb. 15, 2019, FBI agents found child pornography on both a USB drive in Spears’s residence and on Spears’s cell phone.

According to a criminal complaint signed by FBI Special Agent Andrew J. Zubik, Spears used Kik Messenger — an instant-messaging application known for preserving users’ anonymity, allowing them to register without providing a telephone number or real name.

In December 2018, Spears sent “numerous video files and pictures containing child pornography involving minor females” to other members of a Kik group, which is similar to a chat room, the complaint says.

Spears had the username “fist123456” and his account was registered under the first name “Bs” and the last name “Bs,” the complaint says; it was linked to an email address that included his surname. Kik Interactive Inc. provided the FBI with several IP addresses that username “fist123456” with screen name “Bs Bs” had used over the month of December 2018.

Zubik searched these IP addresses using a tool in the public domain and identified the service provider as Verizon, which provided the FBI with information from which Zubik could determine the 518 phone number assigned to Spears at his home, the complaint says.

A federal warrant was then secured to search Spears’s home, car, and electronic devices, which turned up a flash drive at his home containing images of adults performing sex acts on prepubescent children, male and female, according to the complaint. The complaint adds that Spears appeared to live alone.

The complaint lists four examples of files that were sent by the Kik usernam “fist123456” with the screen name “Bs Bs,” including scenes of adults engaging in sexual acts with naked females as young as 6 years old, and of young girls engaging in sexual acts together or alone.

On Feb. 15, 2019 officers stopped Spears to search his car, the complaint says. He was arrested at that time and spoke with Zubik, the complaint says.

Spears admitted that, “while drinking alcohol,” he had viewed child pornogoraphy on his phone, using Kik, and, “while drinking alcohol,” had sent it to other Kik users, the complaint says.

This case was investigated by the FBI and its Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes members of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, including the Colonie Police Department and New York State Police.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Barnett.

The case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, which was launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, Project Safe Childhood is led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.