INDIANAPOLIS (WXIN) — Associates of former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle were sentenced to decades in prison Monday for producing, possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material.
Russell Taylor, age 50, and his ex-wife, 40-year-old Angela Baldwin, were sentenced to 27 and 33 years in prison, respectively.
The U.S. Department of Justice said the investigation into Taylor, Baldwin and Fogle began in 2014, when an acquaintance of Taylor and Baldwin told Indiana State Police that Taylor had offered to send her child sexual abuse material. In 2015, a search warrant was executed at Taylor and Baldwin’s home, and child sexual abuse material was found on multiple electronic devices, per the DOJ.
Taylor and Fogle were charged, pled guilty and convicted in 2015. Taylor appealed, and his conviction was vacated in 2020. The DOJ said during the re-investigation that followed, investigators discovered evidence that implicated Baldwin, and she was charged with production of child sex abuse material, possession of child sex abuse material and conspiracy to produce child sex abuse material.
Taylor and Baldwin worked together and with others, including Fogle, to produce, possess and distribute child sexual abuse material between 2011 and 2015, the DOJ said. Taylor and Baldwin placed hidden cameras in their house to secretly record children naked and/or engaging in sexual activity.
Taylor pled guilty in June of 2021 to multiple offenses, including 24 counts of producing child sexual abuse material. Baldwin was convicted in October of 2021 of two counts of production of child sexual abuse material, one count of conspiracy to produce child sexual abuse material and one count of possession of child sexual abuse material.
“Russell Taylor and Angela Baldwin not only abused children by producing child sexual abuse material in their home, but also re-victimized children over and over again by contributing to the distribution of these images,” said FBI Indianapolis Special Agent in Charge Herbert J. Stapleton.
In court Monday, Taylor and Baldwin learned they would be sentenced to decades in prison as the survivors of what U.S. District Judge Tonya Walton Pratt called “horrific” abuse watched and testified in a downtown Indianapolis federal courtroom.
One told the Court that she engaged in self-mutilation after the abuse became known.
“You had no right to do this to me or any of the other children,” she scolded Taylor, who sat at the defense table in a green prison jumpsuit.
Another woman testified that she suffers from separation anxiety and will never allow her children to attend sleepovers at friends’ homes.
A third said she has lost the ability to trust and love.
In all, nine young girls told investigators that they had been groomed, plied with drugs and alcohol, introduced to sex toys and were assaulted by both Taylor and Baldwin, often on video which was shared between Taylor and Fogle who texted he wanted to meet one of the children or take her on a business road trip.
“My actions hurt you,” Taylor told the survivors gathered with victims’ rights advocates and a service dog in the courtroom. “I violated your guys’ trust.”
Taylor admitted he “selfishly viewed you as instruments for our own desires.”
Judge Pratt noted the role that Taylor’s guilty plea, and his cooperation in revealing the roles Fogle and Baldwin, played in sentencing him once again to 27 years in prison.
“The defendant ruined these girls’ lives,” said the judge.
Taylor has already served seven years of his previous sentence and will receive credit toward his new term.
The judge was not as lenient with Baldwin.
Survivors, including Baldwin’s young relatives, related that she sexually abused them and said her text messages recorded her gleeful responses. She also threw a laptop computer with explicit child pornography videos into Fall Creek, swallowed a SIM card from a cell phone and told victims to lie to investigators.
One survivor told WXIN that in the five years between the arrests of Fogle and Taylor and her own indictment, Baldwin asked one of the teenagers to accompany her on a speaking engagement at a school as she portrayed herself as a domestic violence victim.
Baldwin’s attorney told the court that her client, as Taylor’s wife, “did it for him.” The defendant also testified that she was overtaken by fear.
“I hurt those that I loved, utterly destroying my family,” she said. “I am not the person I was back then.”
Judge Pratt wasn’t buying it.
“It’s a crime what you did to these children,” said Judge Pratt, calling the abuse “egregious.”
Judge Pratt then sentenced Baldwin to more than 33 years in federal prison, enough time to afford her the mental health services the court determined she needs.
The court found that Baldwin was abusing children even when Taylor was out of town on business trips.
“She can’t blame those instances on Russell Taylor,” said Judge Pratt.
Baldwin told the judge she would appeal her conviction and sentence.