A former employee at a Springfield Walmart will spend 15 years in prison for producing child pornography in the store.
Craig Allen Rhoden, 55, was sentenced Tuesday, Oct. 17, in federal court for the crimes of receiving and distributing child pornography.
Rhoden was arrested earlier this year after investigators found more than 16,000 images of minors engaged in sexually explicit acts on Rhoden’s electronic devices. Judge Beth Phillips also ordered Rhoden to pay $5,000 in restitution for each of the victims, for a total of $150,000.
Rhoden admitted to investigators that he “upskirted” images of children at the Walmart at 2825 N. Kansas Expressway in Springfield and then uploaded the images to a Russian website known to host images of child pornography. Rhoden exchanged images of child pornography on the website over a period of years.
Upskirting is when someone takes a nonconsensual photograph or video with a camera lens pointed up someone else's skirt. It is unclear where or when Rhoden took photos inside the Walmart Supercenter.
Federal prosecutor Stephanie Wan said as far as people who receive and distribute child pornography, Rhoden is “one of the worst.”
“The content itself is horrific,” Wan said, adding that the material depicted in Rhoden’s files included the “rape of infants.”
Wan said Rhoden’s “upskirting” images of children at the Springfield Walmart was done for the “purpose of whetting the appetites” of people seeking child pornography online. She said there is no way to identify all of the Springfield victims and no way to know how often those images have since been viewed or traded on the internet.
“These are real children in the Springfield community,” Wan said.
Rhoden did not speak at the sentencing hearing other than an occasional “Yes, ma'am” to the judge when he was asked if he agreed with something or understood something. He wore a Greene County Jail jumpsuit and was breathing with the aid of an oxygen tank.
The defense attorney suggested Rhoden’s age and health conditions were mitigating factors, but Wan argued Rhoden was the same age and in the same state of health when he committed the acts that led to his arrest. Wan also spoke about the “risky behavior” of making upskirt images of children in a public place and said that showed “a real commitment” to the crime.
Rhoden faces similar charges in the Greene County Circuit Court. He is charged with first-degree promoting child pornography (a class B felony under Missouri law) and two charges of possession of child pornography (also a class B felony).
