A Springfield man was sentenced in federal court Tuesday for producing child pornography and distributing those images over the internet.
Dennis Tyler Murray, 32, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 20 years in federal prison without parole. On Oct. 25, 2021, Murray pleaded guilty to one count of using a child to produce child pornography and one count of receiving and distributing child pornography.
On Sept. 29, 2020, law enforcement officers received three CyberTips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children after Google discovered multiple images of child pornography in Murray’s account. Murray had distributed the pornographic images of a 6-year-old victim to another user through Google Hangouts.
On Oct. 1, 2020, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Murray’s residence. Murray admitted he used his cell phone to take sexually explicit images of the child victim. Murray also admitted he sent some of those images through Google Hangouts. Officers seized Murray’s phone, which contained pornographic images of the child victim.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ami Harshad Miller. It was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force and the Springfield Police Department.
The 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, visit the Department of Justice’s website.