Missouri Man Sentenced To 54 Months In Prison For Failing To Update Sex Offender Registration

SHREVEPORT, La. –A man from Missouri was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months in prison and five years of supervised release for moving to Shreveport without updating his sex offender registration, U.S. Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced.

John Mark Phillips, 50, of Springfield, Mo., was sentenced to the 30-month prison term by U.S. District Judge S. Maurice Hicks Jr. for one count of failing to update his sex offender registration. Hicks also revoked Phillips’ supervised release for a previous offense, which added 24 months to Phillips’ prison term for a total of 54 months. According to evidence presented at the May 19, 2014 guilty plea, Phillips was convicted in Christian County Missouri on September 22, 1995, for sexual abuse of a victim under the age of 14, which requires 25 years of sex offender registration.  In 2006, he updated his sex offender registration to reflect a move to Wisconsin. In May of 2011, he failed to report that he had moved back to Missouri. In August of 2011, he pleaded guilty to failure to register as a sex offender in the Western District of Missouri. He was sentenced to serve 18 months in prison and five years of supervised release.  After the prison term ended, U.S. Probation Officers discovered on April 30, 2013, that Phillips had left his Springfield, Mo., housing complex. Probation officers were unable to locate him and issued a warrant for his arrest. Shreveport Police arrested Phillips the same day the warrant was issued.

The U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Office of Probation - Western District of Missouri, and the Shreveport Police Department conducted the investigation.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth D. Reeg prosecuted the case.