Bond denied for Cross County man with Fayetteville ties facing child porn charges

A Cross County man who was arrested Jan. 7 in Wynne on child pornography charges contained in an indictment from the Western District of Arkansas was denied bond this week by a federal magistrate judge and was ordered to remain in federal custody until his case is resolved.

Michael Billy Whitehead, 35, was arrested at his workplace in Wynne on three counts of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography contained in the indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Fayetteville on Nov. 2. He has been in the Pulaski County jail since his arrest but will be transferred to Fayetteville for prosecution.

At the time of his arrest, Whitehead was serving a term of 10 years of supervised release for a 2012 child pornography conviction. Sentenced to eight years, he was released from federal prison Aug. 28, 2019.

If convicted on the new charges, he faces an enhanced sentencing range of 15-40 years in federal prison.

Whitehead's attorney, William Daniel Shelton Jr. with the Federal Public Defenders Office in Little Rock, argued Tuesday for pretrial release for his client, outlining a plan for Whitehead to stay with a family member in Parkin.

Gerald Faulkner, a Homeland Security Investigations agent out of Fayetteville, said that during a 14-week period from September 2019 through the following January, investigators detected some 61 files being shared through a peer-to-peer file sharing network from an IP address located in Northwest Arkansas, which he said was later traced back to Whitehead.

Faulkner said during a Feb. 10, 2020, search of a Fayetteville apartment where Whitehead was living with a friend, investigators seized a cellphone and a laptop computer that a forensic examination revealed contained 15 images and 18 videos depicting child sexual abuse.

Citing Whitehead's continued conduct while under court supervision, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerome Kearney ordered him to remain in federal custody until his case is resolved.

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