Joplin Man Pleads Guilty, Faces 50 Years in Prison for Producing Child Pornography
Also Faces Life Sentence in State Court for Sexually Abusing 4-Year-Old Victim

SPRINGFIELD, MO—David M. Ketchmark, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Joplin, Missouri man pleaded guilty in federal court today to producing child pornography and will plead guilty in state court later this month in a separate case involving the sexual abuse of the same four-year-old victim.

Jason Dewayne Beshears, 30, of Joplin, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Richard E. Dorr to eight counts of producing child pornography.

Under the terms of today’s plea agreement, Beshears must also plead guilty to statutory sodomy and statutory rape in a separate case in the Circuit Court of Jasper County, Missouri. Beshears must agree to a total sentence of life imprisonment in the state case, to run concurrently with the sentence imposed in this federal case.

Upon accepting today’s binding plea agreement in the federal case, the court will sentence Beshears to 50 years in federal prison without parole, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, and an order of restitution. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a pre-sentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

Beshears admitted that he exploited a minor victim over a one-year period to produce digital videos of child pornography. Beshears is charged with exploiting a minor to produce child pornography on August 28, 2010, and on seven more occasions between May 5 and August 9, 2011.

Joplin police officers were called to Beshears’ apartment at about 10 p.m. on August 9, 2011, in response to a complaint that a man found his four-year-old daughter inside Beshears’ bedroom with the door shut. Beshears was taking pictures of the child. Her father removed her from the room went back to confront Beshears, but when he returned to the room, Beshears was gone. Joplin Police officers located Beshears about a block away, attempting to leave in a taxi, and took him into custody. Beshears admitted to officers that he had sexually assaulted the four-year-old child and had previously filmed this type of activity.

In excess of 600 images of child pornography were recovered from Beshears’ digital media. Investigators conducted a forensic examination of Beshears’ laptop computer and found a large quantity of video files of various forms of sexual abuse being conducted by Beshears on the child victim, as well as numerous images of child erotica. The video files were downloaded to Beshears’ laptop from March 2010 to August 9, 2011. Investigators also found more than 20 photos and three videos of sexual abuse being conducted by Beshears on the child victim, which were dated August 9, 2011, on his Panasonic digital camera.

Beshears must forfeit to the government two laptop computers, an Apple iPhone, and a digital camera that were used to commit the offenses.

This case is being prosecuted by Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael S. Oliver. It was investigated by the Joplin, Missouri Police Department; the Southwest Missouri Cybercrimes Task Force; and the FBI.

Project Safe Childhood

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