DALLAS—A 31-year-old Hunt County man appeared this morning in federal court, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul D. Stickney, and pleaded guilty to two counts of production of child pornography, announced John Parker, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.

Stephen Walker, most recently of Quinlan, Texas, faces a statutory penalty of not less than 15 years, and not more than 30 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine and up to a lifetime of supervised release, on each count. He remains in custody. Sentencing is set for May 21, 2015, before U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle.

According to documents filed in the case, in September 2006, Walker enticed Jane Doe #2, a seven-year-old female child, to engage in sexually explicit conduct that he photographed.

Then, in November 2010, Walker enticed Jane Doe #1, a three-year-old female child, to engage in sexually explicit conduct that he video-recorded.

The investigation began in November 2014 when a memory card, containing images of child pornography, was turned in to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. That memory card had been found at a deer lease in a hunting club in Marion County; the deer lease had been used by Walker.

A search warrant of the memory card revealed it contained multiple sexually explicit videos of prepubescent child pornography taken at a Walker’s previous residence in Rowlett.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative, which was launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, and identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/ and click on the tab “resources.”

The FBI and the Rowlett Police Department investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Camille Sparks is in charge of the prosecution.