Burns Flat Woman Sentenced to 27 Years for Videotaping Sex Acts with Toddler

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – Today, United States District Court Judge Robin J. Cauthron sentenced LAURA JEAN SHOULDERS, 47, of Burns Flat, Oklahoma, to serve 324 months in federal prison for producing child pornography, announced Sanford C. Coats, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma. Shoulders will have no possibility of parole. Upon release from prison, Shoulders will have to register as a sex offender.

According to court records and information from court proceedings, Shoulders met a Burlington, Oklahoma, man online through a Craigslist personals ad in the summer of 2012. The two began texting each other about sexually explicit themes and exchanged sexually explicit photographs. The conversations turned to the subject of child pornography, and Shoulders sent the man three videos of herself performing sex acts with a one-year-old child that she made with her iPhone. Shoulders was babysitting the child. The man, in turn, distributed the videos to others, whom he met online.

Shoulders was indicted on January 8, 2014, and pled guilty on February 26, 2013.

This case is the result of an investigation by the Oklahoma Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, Washita County Sheriff’s Office, Burns Flat Police Department, Dewey County Sheriff’s Office, and the United States Secret Service. Among the investigators who participated in this investigation were the recently deceased Officer Kristian Willhight of the Burns Flat Police Department and the recently deceased Undersheriff Brian Beck of the Washita County Sheriff’s Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Hale.