Adult film actor planned to sexually abuse boy with ‘babysitter’ in NY, feds say
An adult film actor targeted children and teens for sexual abuse “again and again,” including a purported 9-year-old boy he planned on sexually abusing with a man he thought was a babysitter, federal prosecutors wrote in sentencing documents.
While waiting outside a Manhattan, New York, apartment building where he thought the child lived in January 2024, Justin Heath Smith became “irate” when the adult told Smith the boy’s “parent was coming home sooner than expected and that the encounter would have to be rescheduled,” reads a sentencing letter filed by the government on Sept. 22. But this child did not actually exist, officials said.
Smith, who is known as “Austin Wolf,” tried to arrange more meet-ups with minors in the following months, the letter says.
He previously pleaded guilty to one count of enticement of a minor, court records show.
On Sept. 29, the 44-year-old New York City resident was sentenced 19 years in federal prison on the enticement charge and on a charge of engaging in a pattern of activity involving prohibited sexual conduct, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said in a Sept. 29 news release.
One of Smith’s criminal defense attorneys, Thomas H. Andrykovitz, said in an emailed statement to McClatchy News on Sept. 30 that “Mr. Smith has accepted responsibility, he will serve his time, and he will emerge a different person.”
“The Government’s press release paints an incomplete picture of the facts and the proceedings,” Andrykovitz added. “It fails to mention that Mr. Smith never put his hands on a minor.”
Before Smith was arrested on June 28, 2024, prosecutors said he tried to arrange sex acts with a 7-year-old boy and made plans to meet with a man who said they were the child’s father.
Around the same time Smith messaged the man in April 2024, “Smith told several other people that he planned to sexually abuse a seven-year-old child, and suggested he might invite them to join in,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing letter.
One person Smith communicated with was an undercover FBI agent, according to prosecutors.
Federal authorities ultimately executed a search warrant at Smith’s New York City apartment before he could meet with the child, according to prosecutors.
Afterward, prosecutors said Smith was found to have 1,291 child pornography files, several of which involved babies and toddlers and others that showed children being violently raped.
He is accused of sending child pornography to at least 15 people.
According prosecutors, Smith preyed on children and teens beginning in at least 2023.
On one occasion in late 2023 or early 2024, they said Smith and another man met with a 15-year-old boy. During the meeting, the other man “performed oral sex on the minor while Smith masturbated,” according to prosecutors.
Smith also took part in at least three sexual encounters with someone he thought was 15, but was actually an adult, prosecutors said.
He filmed one of the encounters, which also involved the other adult who was accused of taking part in oral sex acts with an actual 15-year-old while Smith was present, according to prosecutors.
After prosecutors said Smith tried to arrange sexually abusing a 9-year-old with the boy’s babysitter, he tried to meet a “purported 14-year-old” for sex acts in February 2024, but that “encounter did not ultimately occur.”
Smith also solicited child sexual abuse material from a 15-year-old, as well as other people who told him they were underage, and exchanged explicit photos with a person online whose username suggested they were 12-years-old, according to prosecutors.
Smith talked about potentially meeting the purported 12-year-old, prosecutors said.
Ahead of sentencing, Smith faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years, his attorneys, Andrykovitz and Michael Baldassare, wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
They requested a sentence “at or near” 10 years, arguing it would “account for the serious nature of Mr. Smith’s offense,” the filing shows.
They said Smith previously lived a “law-abiding life” and portrayed him a person with close family ties and someone who had a high work ethic during a successful adult entertainment career.
Andrykovitz told McClatchy News that the government’s news release left out “critical mitigating circumstances recognized by the court at sentencing, including Mr. Smith’s immediate and ongoing efforts to rebuild his life from within the Metropolitan Detention Center,” a federal detention center in Brooklyn.
In the government’s sentencing letter, prosecutors emphasized “The seriousness of Smith’s crimes cannot be overstated.”
“He actively tried to rape defenseless seven- and nine-year-old children,” prosecutors wrote. “He had sex three times with someone who he believed to be 15 years old. He collaborated in at least one in-person sexual encounter with a 15-year-old. He induced another 15-year-old to create child pornography for him. And his desire for more abuse — and for younger children — was even greater.”
Smith’s sentence will be followed by 10 years of supervised release, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He was also ordered to pay a $40,000 fine.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office advises the public to report suspected child sexual exploitation to the FBI at 1-212-384-1000 or to the agency’s online tip form.
This story was originally published September 30, 2025 at 3:48 PM with the headline "Adult film actor planned to sexually abuse boy with ‘babysitter’ in NY, feds say."
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