July 21, 2014

Hattiesburg Man Sentenced on Child Pornography Charges

HATTIESBURG, MS—Grantham Armstrong Mitchell, 20, of Hattiesburg, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 15 years in federal prison for production of child pornography and seven years for possession of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Gregory K. Davis and FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Johnnie Sharp. The two sentences will be served concurrently and followed by an eight year term of supervised release. Mitchell was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,591.

Mitchell previously pled guilty to producing a video of himself and a minor child engaging in sexually explicit conduct in Orange Beach, Alabama in 2012. He also possessed numerous images and videos of minor children, as young as twelve years old, engaging in sex with adults.

The investigation in this case began when a complaint was received from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding possible child pornography being uploaded to a Dropbox account via the Internet. An investigation was conducted by members of the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force (CETF) which is comprised of special agents of the FBI and investigators from the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office and the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office. The investigation led to the execution of a search warrant for a computer and other electronic devices owned by Mitchell. A forensic review of the computer determined that it contained images and videos of suspected child pornography and led to the identity of the minor child in the video produced by Mitchell. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Glenda Haynes.