Hendersonville man sentenced to 100 years in prison for charges on sexual exploitation of a minor

HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A judge sentenced one Hendersonville man to 100 years in prison without the possibility of parole or early release on sexual exploitation of a minor charges.

According to an Assistant District Attorney, the state introduced images created by Jay Chandler featuring Chandler engaged in sex acts with a 9-year-old in the summer of 2017. Those images were separate from other child sexual abuse material for which Chandler was previously convicted.

“[The images] showed the Court that Mr. Chandler had been sexually abusing children for years,” Assistant District Attorney Nathan Nichols said in an email to News 2.

In August, a jury found Chandler guilty on 54 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. The execution of a November 2022 search warrant at Chandler’s residence led to the discovery of numerous electronic devices which Nichols said “revealed thousands of images depicting the sexual abuse of children.”

Chandler also has two other pending cases that will be set for trial following his sentencing hearing. Those cases, Nichols said, involve two victims. One of those victims is an 8-year-old girl that Chandler allegedly raped in 2017, while the other victim is 16. News 2 previously reported that Chandler was the supervisor of a teenage victim at a restaurant.

Officers started an investigation into Chandler in October 2022 when the case was first brought to the mother of the teenage victim’s attention, per an affidavit.