A Carl Junction man pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to receiving child pornography over the Internet in a plea agreement that will send him to prison for 25 years without parole.
James L. Hagerman, 50, waived his right to a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Springfield before entering guilty pleas on two counts of receiving child pornography.
The defendant was charged in May of last year after an online investigation by a Joplin police detective assigned to the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force.
On April 24, 2012, the investigator discovered child pornography on more than 100 files that were being shared on the Internet by a computer belonging to Hagerman, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Missouri.
The detective downloaded three of the files and found images of children as young as 2 to 4 years old engaged in sexually explicit conduct, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a news release.
A search warrant was conducted at the defendant’s home, and his computer was seized. He reportedly told police that he had about 1,000 videos of child pornography stored on the computer.
A sentencing hearing will be set for Hagerman by U.S. Magistrate Judge David Rush upon completion of a pre-sentence investigation by the U.S. Probation Office.
Crime & Courts
Plea bargain holds 25-year sentence for local resident
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