ZANESVILLE, Ohio — An Illinois man who spent two years grooming a Zanesville-area child he met on a social media app before driving across state lines to sexually abuse her has pleaded guilty in federal court, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Immanuel D. Nellum, 30, of Peoria Heights, Illinois, entered his guilty plea before Chief U.S. District Judge Sarah D. Morrison in Columbus on two federal counts — coercion and enticement of a minor and traveling interstate with the intent to engage in unlawful sexual activity with a minor. He faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in federal prison and could receive a life sentence.
According to court documents, Nellum first made contact with the victim through the online app Friend when she was just 12 years old. Over the next two years — between August 2023 and August 2025 — he cultivated an online relationship with the child, exchanging nude images and videos with her across multiple platforms including Snapchat.
The scope of the online contact was staggering. Investigators found more than 141,000 messages between Nellum and the victim on his phone, along with approximately 5,500 attachments. More than 10,000 of those messages and 2,000 attachments were traced to social media platforms.
The online grooming ultimately led to an in-person encounter. Nellum admitted he traveled to Zanesville with the intent to sexually abuse the minor. In August 2025, law enforcement tracked him to the Quality Inn in Zanesville, where he was arrested with the victim present. Investigators found 75 videos on his phone that he had recorded during his encounters with the child at the hotel.
Nellum was initially charged in Muskingum County and arrested on August 19, 2025. Federal charges followed the next month.
Sentencing has not yet been scheduled and will be determined by the court based on federal sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.
The case was investigated by the FBI’s Cincinnati Division and the Zanesville Police Department and is being prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative targeting child sexual exploitation and abuse online.
Anyone with information about the online sexual exploitation of children is encouraged to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or tips.fbi.gov.