Springfield Felon Sentenced to 13 Years on Second Child Pornography Offense

SPRINGFIELD, MO—Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Springfield, Missouri man who has been convicted twice for possessing child pornography was sentenced in federal court today.

Lattrell Anthony Morris, 30, of Springfield, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner to 13 years in federal prison without parole for possessing child pornography and for violating the terms of his supervised release (which was being served for an earlier conviction, also for possessing child pornography). Morris was sentenced to 10 years in prison for possessing child pornography and to five years in prison for violating his supervised release, with two years of that sentence to be served concurrently to his 10-year sentence, for a total of 13 years. Following his prison term, Morris will be on supervised release for the rest of his life.

Today’s sentence is more than double the length of his previous sentence for possessing child pornography. Morris was sentenced in 2007 to serve 70 months in federal prison for possessing child pornography, followed by a lifetime term of supervised release. Morris had been on supervised release for only a few months when he was caught downloading child pornography on his cell phone.

Morris received a cell phone in September 2012, approximately four months after being released from federal prison. Despite Morris’s supervised release restrictions against Internet services, Morris paid $50 a month for unlimited Internet access through his cell phone. Morris admitted that he used his cell phone daily to conduct Internet searches for child pornography. Law enforcement officers examined Morris’s cell phone and found more than 15 images of child pornography.

As a result, Morris’s supervised release was revoked and he was charged again with possessing child pornography. Morris pleaded guilty in the second case on May 21, 2013.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Abram McGull, II. It was investigated by the FBI; the Springfield, Missouri Police Department; and the U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services Office.

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."

This news release, as well as additional information about the office of the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, is available online at http://www.justice.gov/usao/mow/index.html.