Former Benton Co. coach and youth pastor sentenced to 45 years for exploiting children

A former Benton County coach and youth pastor will spend 45 years in federal prison for child exploitation.

Thirty-four-year-old Joshua Henley was sentenced in Memphis federal court to 540 months in prison followed by ten years of supervised release for producing sexually explicit images of a minor, transporting, and possessing child exploitation material, and transporting a minor by interstate with the intent to engage in sexual activity.

There is no parole in the federal prison system.

According to information presented in court, from 2017 until April 2021, Henley was the pastor at Holladay Church of Christ and coached the girls’ basketball team at Holladay Elementary.

In April 2021, Henley left Benton County to become the youth pastor at a church in Indiana. Two months later, he returned to Benton County to take a teen to Indiana under the guise that she was to assist at his new parish. Instead, Henley sexually assaulted the teen. He was arrested as he drove her back to Tennessee.

At the time of his arrest, Henley’s cell phone contained sexually explicit images and videos of two other Tennessee teenagers with which he had contact through SnapChat and FaceTime. The teens each disclosed that Henley also engaged in sexual activity with them.

Henley has worked with young people in other states including Oklahoma and Texas.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, the Evansville Police Department, and TBI’s Technical Service Unit.