Casas enters plea bargain for child pornography charges
Casas
March 18, 2015
Charlea Mills
Cassville man Matthew Paul Casas recently pled guilty in Federal Court, accepting a plea bargain on child pornography charges stemming from an April 1, 2014, indictment.
Casas, 26, of Cassville, was initially charged with three different counts related to child pornography and was formally indicted on July 22, 2014. Since then, Casas has changed his plea from not guilty to guilty in exchange for one of the charges related to sexual exploitation of a minor being dropped. Casas signed a plea bargain on two of the counts of the superseding indictment on February 5 for distribution of child pornography and possession of child pornography.
For the distribution charge, Casas faces no less than five years imprisonment and up to 20 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, no less than five years or lifetime supervised release, and a $100 mandatory special assessment per felony count of conviction that must be paid in full at the time of sentencing. For the possession charge, the Court may impose no more than 10 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, no less than five years or lifetime supervised release, and a $100 mandatory special assessment per felony count of conviction which must be paid in full at the time of sentencing.
According to the plea bargain, Casas pled guilty to the two charges in exchange for the government dismissing the first count of the superseding indictment and avoiding a trial because of the “impact a trial could have upon his family members.” The plea bargain states that they agreed to not less than 15 years and not more than 25 years imprisonment for the guilty plea.
The plea bargain also states that the agreement of 15 to 25 years is advisory in nature, so it does not guarantee that those parameters will be met. The plea bargain was filed with District Judge M. Douglas Harpool, but the case was transferred to District Judge Stephen Bough for sentencing. A sentencing hearing date has yet to be set.
The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri by U.S. Attorney Tammy Dickinson and Assistant U.S. Attorney Abram McGull II. Casas was represented by Assistant Federal Public Defender Ann Koszuth.
Former Southwest Missouri Cyber Crime Task Force (SMCCTF) Special Agent Brian Martin originally investigated the case when he was contacted about a rented smart television that contained stored images of child pornography. According to Martin’s report, the television was rented by Casas from May 2, 2013, through May 20, 2013, from Aaron Rentals in Monett. The Monett Police Department then received a report from the rental establishment that the person who rented the tv after Casas had returned it because of the inappropriate images stored on the tv. The case was passed on to Martin on December 19, 2013.
During Martin’s investigation, he found that the images had been created by a Kodak Easy Share camera and depicted an adult male performing sexual acts on a female child no more than 12- to 18-months old. It didn’t appear that those images had been obtained from the internet, according to Martin.
Then, on February 14, 2014, Martin received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that a person had created Facebook accounts and was posting child pornography. On February 21, 2014, the NCMEM submitted another Cybertip related to someone posting 130 images of child pornography on a Flickr social media account that had been established on January 17, 2014. The IP address was a Mediacom account that assigned to Casas under the name Michael Crum at his residence on 11th Street in Cassville where he resided with his father, Henry Casas, a convicted sex offender.
A search warrant was issued on February 26, 2014, and the SMCCTF, the Barry County Sheriff’s Office and the Cassville Police Department executed the warrant on February 28. During an interview, Casas admitted to posting images online from an SD card that he had received from a co-worker at Justin Boot.
As part of that investigation, Casas’ wife had stated that she left him partially due to the child pornography on his phone. According to her statement, he informed her that he was selling it. He had also been violent toward her in the past and had threatened to harm her and other family members. Casas’ father had also confronted him regarding the pornography issue, encouraging him to get help.
Casas also had previous arrests for assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
Charlea Mills
Cassville man Matthew Paul Casas recently pled guilty in Federal Court, accepting a plea bargain on child pornography charges stemming from an April 1, 2014, indictment.
Casas, 26, of Cassville, was initially charged with three different counts related to child pornography and was formally indicted on July 22, 2014. Since then, Casas has changed his plea from not guilty to guilty in exchange for one of the charges related to sexual exploitation of a minor being dropped. Casas signed a plea bargain on two of the counts of the superseding indictment on February 5 for distribution of child pornography and possession of child pornography.
For the distribution charge, Casas faces no less than five years imprisonment and up to 20 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, no less than five years or lifetime supervised release, and a $100 mandatory special assessment per felony count of conviction that must be paid in full at the time of sentencing. For the possession charge, the Court may impose no more than 10 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, no less than five years or lifetime supervised release, and a $100 mandatory special assessment per felony count of conviction which must be paid in full at the time of sentencing.
According to the plea bargain, Casas pled guilty to the two charges in exchange for the government dismissing the first count of the superseding indictment and avoiding a trial because of the “impact a trial could have upon his family members.” The plea bargain states that they agreed to not less than 15 years and not more than 25 years imprisonment for the guilty plea.
The plea bargain also states that the agreement of 15 to 25 years is advisory in nature, so it does not guarantee that those parameters will be met. The plea bargain was filed with District Judge M. Douglas Harpool, but the case was transferred to District Judge Stephen Bough for sentencing. A sentencing hearing date has yet to be set.
The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri by U.S. Attorney Tammy Dickinson and Assistant U.S. Attorney Abram McGull II. Casas was represented by Assistant Federal Public Defender Ann Koszuth.
Former Southwest Missouri Cyber Crime Task Force (SMCCTF) Special Agent Brian Martin originally investigated the case when he was contacted about a rented smart television that contained stored images of child pornography. According to Martin’s report, the television was rented by Casas from May 2, 2013, through May 20, 2013, from Aaron Rentals in Monett. The Monett Police Department then received a report from the rental establishment that the person who rented the tv after Casas had returned it because of the inappropriate images stored on the tv. The case was passed on to Martin on December 19, 2013.
During Martin’s investigation, he found that the images had been created by a Kodak Easy Share camera and depicted an adult male performing sexual acts on a female child no more than 12- to 18-months old. It didn’t appear that those images had been obtained from the internet, according to Martin.
Then, on February 14, 2014, Martin received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that a person had created Facebook accounts and was posting child pornography. On February 21, 2014, the NCMEM submitted another Cybertip related to someone posting 130 images of child pornography on a Flickr social media account that had been established on January 17, 2014. The IP address was a Mediacom account that assigned to Casas under the name Michael Crum at his residence on 11th Street in Cassville where he resided with his father, Henry Casas, a convicted sex offender.
A search warrant was issued on February 26, 2014, and the SMCCTF, the Barry County Sheriff’s Office and the Cassville Police Department executed the warrant on February 28. During an interview, Casas admitted to posting images online from an SD card that he had received from a co-worker at Justin Boot.
As part of that investigation, Casas’ wife had stated that she left him partially due to the child pornography on his phone. According to her statement, he informed her that he was selling it. He had also been violent toward her in the past and had threatened to harm her and other family members. Casas’ father had also confronted him regarding the pornography issue, encouraging him to get help.
Casas also had previous arrests for assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
