A Colorado City man has been sentenced to 19 years in federal prison for distributing child sexual abuse material, according to an announcement from United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould.
Skyler Shoemaker, 34, was indicted in May and pleaded guilty three months later to distribution of child pornography. On December 11, U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix sentenced him to 228 months in federal prison.
Court documents show that Shoemaker used Facebook Messenger to send a sexually explicit video involving a young child to his girlfriend, Angel Bradford. Additional information presented during sentencing indicated that Shoemaker distributed child pornography through various online platforms and committed sex acts in front of minors.
Angel Bradford, 33, from Hermleigh, Texas, was indicted alongside Shoemaker in May. She pleaded guilty to receipt of child pornography in July and was sentenced by Judge Hendrix on November 6 to five years in federal prison.
The case was investigated by the FBI Dallas Field Office – Abilene Resident Agency, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the Abilene Police Department’s Cyber Crimes Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Whitney Ohlhausen prosecuted the case.
“The Justice Department is committed to combating child sexual exploitation and brought this case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice,” according to the release. “Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.”
The Department partners with organizations such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which receives tips about possible cases through its hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST or on missingkids.org.
