Suspect faces additional sex-crime charges

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A man already jailed on charges related to child pornography is facing additional charges in a superseding indictment.

William McCants, 44, who listed addresses in Youngstown and Akron, had been charged in 2010 with two counts of pandering obscenity involving a minor and two counts of illegal use of minors in nudity-oriented material. He is awaiting trial before Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, but the list of charges against him has grown.

A Mahoning County grand jury Thursday handed up a superseding indictment against McCants listing 100 counts of charges related to inappropriate behavior with minors.

McCants is charged with 10 counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material, 15 counts of pandering obscenity involving a minor, 57 counts of pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor, and 18 counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material.

McCants will likely be arraigned on the new charges May 8.

City police, Akron police and various task-force groups spent several weeks looking for McCants in April 2010 for allegedly recording himself in sexual situations with children. He eventually was arrested while patronizing an adult-entertainment store in Akron.

The 2010 investigation into McCants began after his estranged wife brought police a computer disk with images of McCants and young, nude girls. Police estimated the children on the video and still photos to be between age 10 and 12.

McCants has been in the Mahoning County jail on a $500,000 bond since his 2010 arrest.