SYLACAUGA (AL)
Anniston Star [Anniston, AL]
July 30, 2026
By Faith Dorn
Local and federal authorities arrested an Oxford man on multiple child exploitation charges following a multi-agency cyber investigation, police announced.
Aubrey Jamaal Butler, 46, faces eight counts of electronic solicitation of a child and one count of production of obscene matter of a minor, according to Oxford Police Chief Daniel Phipps.
Butler is the senior pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Sylacauga.
Investigators booked the suspect into the Calhoun County Jail, where he remains held on a $108,000 bond.
The investigation launched after law enforcement received cyber tips routed through the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Detectives with the Oxford Police Department’s criminal investigation division then teamed up with several local, state and federal entities to track down the lead.
Assisting in the investigation were the District Attorney’s Office for the 7th Judicial Circuit of Alabama, the FBI, the United States Secret Service, the United States Marshals Service and East Alabama Crime Center.
“The Oxford Police Department remains committed to protecting children and investigating crimes involving the exploitation of minors,” said Phipps.
Butler has been the senior pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Sylacauga since at least 2017. Before that, he served as a minister at First Missionary Baptist Church in Munford.
This is also not Butler’s first brush with the law. In 2005, he was arrested in Oxford for approaching a 13-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy and trying to get them into his SUV, where he would pay them to make pornography.
He was not successful in either case, according to information released by Oxford Police at the time.
He was arrested and indicted by a Calhoun County grand jury for felony enticing a minor for immoral purposes in the case involving the young girl.
According to court records, he pleaded guilty in 2008 to attempted custodial interference, a misdemeanor, and was sentenced to one year in the Calhoun County jail followed by two years probation. By the time he was sentenced, he had already served 210 days in jail, and was given credit for that, as well.
Oxford Police said at the time of Butler’s arrest in 2005 that he had just moved to Alabama from Florida, where he also had a criminal record, but details of what crimes he was convicted of in Florida were not readily available. Butler has never been a registered sex offender in Alabama.
According to the warrants filed in the current cases, Butler is charged with producing child pornography between June 27 and September 15, 2025.
The solicitation counts involve alleged conduct between June 21 and 22 of last year, June 27 to September 17, July 1 and 2 of last year, July 21 and 22 of last year, July 23 and 24 last year, Aug. 31 and Sept. 22 last year, Sept. 22 last year and February 13 to June 18 of this year.
Manufacture of child pornography is a Class A felony in Alabama, punishable upon conviction by 10 to 99 years or life in prison.
Electronic solicitation of a child is a Class B felony, punishable upon conviction by two to 20 years in prison.
–Daily Home editor Chris Norwood contributed to this story.