Joplin Sex Offender Sentenced to 15 Years for Child Porn

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Joplin, Mo., man who is a convicted sex offender was sentenced in federal court today for receiving and distributing child pornography over the Internet.

Donnie Ray Sumner, 44, of Joplin, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips to 15 years in federal prison without parole. Sumner has a prior state felony conviction for possessing child pornography.

On April 23, 2014, Sumner pleaded guilty to receiving and distributing child pornography. Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Sumner’s residence on Jan. 21, 2013, and seized a desktop computer and a laptop computer that contained images of child pornography.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney James J. Kelleher. It was investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crime Task Force.

Project Safe Childhood

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."