Former Mobile Man Sentenced to Life in Prison for Child Sex Crimes

United States Attorney Richard W. Moore of the Southern District of Alabama announced that Myron Gerald “Ty” Stevens, 43, formerly of Mobile and Thomasville, Alabama, was sentenced to life in prison for sexual exploitation of children. The sentence was imposed by United States District Judge William H. Steele. In the event Stevens is ever released, he would be supervised by the United States Probation Office for the rest of his life, and required to register as a sex offender in any jurisdiction in which he lives, works, or is a student.

Stevens pled guilty in April, 2017 to two counts of production of child pornography; transporting a minor across state lines with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity; receipt and distribution of child pornography; and possession of child pornography.

According to court records of Stevens’s plea, the investigation began in March of 2014, when law enforcement agents downloaded images of child pornography from a computer connected to the internet. Agents traced the location of the computer to a residence in Thomasville, and obtained a search warrant in August of 2014. Computer equipment and media storage devices were seized pursuant to the warrant, and an on-scene review of the data revealed a video of Stevens performing oral sex on a boy. Investigators learned that Stevens was on the way back from a trip to Florida with the boy. Agents immediately obtained an arrest warrant for Stevens, and he was arrested in transit from Florida.

In a videotaped statement, Stevens admitted to agents that he had sexually abused the 14-year old boy between 25 and 50 times over the previous two years, beginning when the boy was 12. Stevens also confessed that he had recorded some of the abuse and that he was addicted to child pornography that he downloaded and distributed on the internet. Stevens told investigators that the last time he had abused the boy was the previous night in Florida. The victim identified himself in sanitized photos and confirmed Stevens’s abuse of him for the past two years. He also identified a second boy in other videos Stevens took of the boy in Stevens’s apartment. Forensic analysis of the media recovered in the search revealed at least 1,877 images and 597 videos depicting child pornography.

The investigation was conducted by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency with the assistance of the Thomasville Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Sean P. Costello and Maria E. Murphy.

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 and for information about internet safety education, visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.