A Carlisle man pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Little Rock to a charge of distributing child pornography, for which he will face 5 to 20 years in prison, a fine and a possible $5,000 special assessment when sentenced at a later date.
U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr. accepted the plea from Stuart Jonas Adams, who will also have to register as a sex offender in the towns where he lives, works and is a student.
Until he pleaded guilty, Adams was scheduled for a jury trial beginning next week on three charges: two counts of distribution of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.
Adams was arrested on a warrant May 17, 2019, after an FBI agent submitted a probable-cause affidavit outlining a series of online discussions Adams had with an undercover officer after he responded to a classified ad the undercover officer posted Feb. 22, 2019.
Using the name dementedjoker3, Adams sent the undercover officer, posing as the father of an 8-year-old girl, two videos and one still image depicting child pornography, according to the affidavit. It said Adams also expressed interest in meeting the purported 8-year-old girl to have sex with her while her father watched.
The affidavit includes a summary of several messages exchanged by the officer and Adams over several weeks, with Adams asking for permission to perform a variety of sex acts on the girl and repeatedly asking how far he could go with her and what kind of sexual experiences she'd had so far.
The transcript shows that Adams tentatively agreed one day in March 2019 to meet up with the father and daughter to have sex with the girl for $250. The transcript shows that Adams called off the meeting the day it was to occur, saying he had to help a friend with a car problem.
The FBI tracked down the identity of dementedjoker3 through administrative subpoenas to online providers and executed a federal search warrant at his home May 17, 2019, according to the affidavit. It said he and his girlfriend were at the home at the time, and Adams denied ever looking at child pornography. He also claimed to have deleted the online account through which he communicated with the undercover officer when he started dating the woman three years earlier.
One image of child pornography that was found on Adams' cellphone as a result of the search was the same image he had sent to the undercover officer April 1, 2019, the affidavit said.
Adams' plea agreement says that after a pre-sentence report is completed by the U.S. Probation Office, he will face sentencing enhancements because the minor in the image was younger than 12, because sadistic and masochistic conduct was displayed and because he was found in possession of at least 600 images of child pornography.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristin Bryant, and Adams is represented by attorney Chris Tarver of the federal public defender's office.
Metro on 02/04/2020