Battle Creek Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Receiving Child Pornography

A man who received child pornography was sentenced April 14, 2021, to more than 11 years in federal prison.

Russell Roy Wilson, age 30, from Battle Creek, Iowa, received the prison term after an August 3, 2020, guilty plea to one count of receipt of child pornography. 

In a plea agreement, Wilson admitted that between November 2016 and October 2018, in the Northern District of Iowa, he knowingly received visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct using a cell phone. During the execution of a search warrant at Wilson’s residence on or about October 18, 2018, officers seized items belonging to Wilson which after forensic examination were found contain child pornography.  Wilson has failed to comply with the sex offender registry guidelines on a number of occasions.

Wilson was sentenced in Sioux City by United States District Court Chief Judge Leonard T. Strand.  Wilson was sentenced to 135 months’ imprisonment.  He was ordered to make $12,000 in restitution.  He must also serve a 5-year term of supervised release after the prison term.  There is no parole in the federal system.

Wilson is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.  For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mikala Steenholdt and investigated by The Iowa Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and Ida County Sheriff’s Office.

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. 

The case file number is 19-CR-4043.

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