Iowa Man Sentenced to 9 Years in Federal Prison for Possession of Child Pornography

A Carrol, Iowa man that utilized Kik, an online messaging app, to receive and distribute visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct was sentenced April 7, 2023, to 9 years in federal prison.         

Wyant Unruh, 37, received the prison term after a November 7, 2022, guilty plea to Possession of Child Pornography.

In the plea agreement, Unruh admitted that between November 2019, and July 2021, that he knowingly possessed child pornography, and that he used the messaging app Kik to knowingly receive and attempt to receive visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  He further admitted to using the app to distribute child pornography to others.

Unruh was sentenced in Sioux City by United States District Court Chief Judge Leonard T. Strand to 108 months’ imprisonment and fined $500.  He was also ordered to pay $8,500 in restitution to the victims.  Unruh must also serve a 5-year term of supervised released following the prison term.  There is no parole in the federal system.

The case was investigated by the Iowa Department of Public Safety and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kraig R. Hamit.

Unruh is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

 Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. 

The case file number is 22-3016.

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