Sex Offender Portrayed a Woman Online to Solicit Explicit Photos from Teen Boy
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Timothy A. Garrison, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a convicted sex offender in Reeds Spring, Mo., who pretended to be a woman online in order to solicit sexually explicit photos from a teenage boy, pleaded guilty in federal court today to the sexual exploitation of a minor.
Jeffrey Raymond Everett, Jr., 22, of Reeds Spring, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to the charge contained in a Sept. 20, 2017, federal indictment. Everett has a prior state conviction for possession of child pornography.
According to today’s plea agreement, another student turned in the 16-year-old child victim’s cell phone at school because he found nude photos of the victim on the phone. Investigators found Facebook Messenger conversations between the victim and “Alecia Valentine," who was later determined to be Everett.
In those messages, Everett - pretending to be Alecia Valentine - asks for sexually explicit images and videos of the victim, who sent numerous sexually explicit images and videos to Everett. The victim told law enforcement officers that he had engaged in several chat sessions with Alecia Valentine. Everett sent him pictures of a nude female, purportedly of Alecia Valentine, and requested that he send sexual pictures and videos of himself in return, which he did.
Under federal statutes, Everett is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in federal prison without parole, up to 50 years in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendants will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. Sentencing hearings will be scheduled after the completion of presentence investigations by the United States Probation Office.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ami Harshad Miller. It was investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force and the Monett, Mo., Police Department.
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."
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
