SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — A Shreveport man has been sentenced to federal prison on child pornography charges.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, 51-year-old James Ray Williams of Shreveport was sentenced by District Judge S. Maurice Hicks Jr. to 27 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release after conspiring to advertise the distribution of child pornography.
Williams was also ordered to pay $6,000 in restitution.
Williams was charged in November 2021 with conspiracy to advertise the distribution of child pornography. He pleaded guilty to the charge on August 30, 2022.
According to the information introduced in court between May 2021 and July 7, Williams was the master administrator of multiple private chat groups on the Kik Messenger app and had his own username.
These private chat groups were dedicated to the advertisement and distribution of child pornography. As the master administrator, Williams posted rules to the private group chats. He also recruited members to the private groups. He also appointed some to be sub-administrators and enforce the rules in the groups.
One of the rules required members of the private chat groups to post child pornography.
Around May 9, 2021, Williams a.k.a. “travis_m495” published an advertisement in the private chat group an advertisement offering to distribute child pornography. The advertisement consisted of a mega link with a file path that contained videos and images of child pornography.
Convicted sex offender Alexander Pennington from Las Vegas who was appointed by Williams
as a sub-administrator of the private group chats was charged as a co-defendant in the case.
Pennington previously pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 years in prison in connection with this case for his role in the conspiracy to advertise the distribution of child pornography.
