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Prosecutors asking for 11-year sentence for YouTube star

CHICAGO (AP) - Federal prosecutors are asking for an 11-year prison sentence for a YouTube singer with a teenage following who admitted to coercing six underage females to send him sexually explicit videos.

Austin Jones of Bloomingdale, Illinois pleaded guilty in February to one count of child pornography. In a sentencing recommendation filed this week, prosecutors included extensive excerpts from Jones' online conversations with six underage girls, ages 14 to 15.

Prosecutors said the singer admitted to reaching out to 30 other girls online, before his arrest on child pornography charges in 2017. In addition to giving the girls suggestions for poses and underwear choices, Jones frequently gave them "lines" to recite.

In his filing Thursday, defense attorney Terrence LeFevour asserted the singer's supposedly "happy life" was "marred with abuse, pain, loss and death." He said Jones suffered physical, emotional, mental and sexual abuse at the hands relatives.

The 26-year-old Jones is set to be sentenced on May 3.

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