2 men arrested by Hamilton County child sex crimes task force

HAMILTON COUNTY, Ind. — Two different men have been arrested after separate investigations into sex crimes against children.

According to the Fishers Police Department, the Hamilton County Metro Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force arrested an Indianapolis man and an Alexandria man on Wednesday for sex crimes against children.

Michael Knighton of Indianapolis was arrested and preliminarily charged with the following:

• 10 counts of Possession of Child Pornography, a Level 5 Felony
• Four counts of Possession of Child Pornography, a Level 6 Felony.

Detectives with the task force searched through Knighton’s social media accounts and found evidence of child sexual abuse material.

That led to a search warrant being conducted at Knighton’s residence, where police found over 4,800 more photos and videos that contained child sex abuse, mostly containing images of children under the age of 12.

Knighton was arrested and taken to the Marion County Jail.

Kole Baker of Alexandria was arrested and preliminarily charged with the following:

• One count of Promotion of Child Sexual Trafficking, a Level 3 Felony
• One count of Child Exploitation, a Level 4 Felony
• One count of Child Exploitation, a Level 5 Felony
• One count of Possession of Child Pornography, a Level 5 Felony
• One count of Possession of Child Pornography, a Level 6 Felony.

Police said the task force searched through six of Baker’s social media accounts and found evidence promoting child sex trafficking.

A search warrant was then conducted at Baker’s residence, where they found more evidence that showed that Baker was chatting with juvenile females, attempting to manipulate them into sending him child sex abuse material.

Baker was arrested in Enterprise, Alabama, on Sept. 23. He was then extradited to Madison County.