Final defendant sentenced to prison in child sexual abuse conspiracy

WICHITA, KAN. – A Kansas man was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his involvement in manufacturing child sexual abuse materials. 

According to court documents, Taylor Mullen, 33, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit sexual exploitation of a child – production of child pornography.

Mullen is the fourth person sentenced in a case involving two separate conspiracies both led by Joel Womochil, 39, of Manhattan, Kansas. Womochil pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit sexual exploitation of a child – production of child pornography. In March, he was sentenced to 720 months in prison.

In 2021, Mullen and his girlfriend Jessica Quave, 38, created videos of themselves engaging in sexually explicit behavior with a child under six years old and sent the videos to Womochil. 

Quave pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sexual exploitation of a child - production of child pornography. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Another conspiracy in 2019 took place between Womochil and Denise Renee Sandman, 40, of Indiana. After meeting Womochil online, Sandmann agreed to create images of a child under the age of five engaged in sexually explicit conduct and send the images to Womochil, which he saved to his hard drive. 

Sandmann pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit sexual exploitation of a child – production of child pornography and one count of sexual exploitation of a child – production of child pornography. She was sentenced to 720 months in prison.

“We are grateful to the Kansas Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and Homeland Security Investigations for securing the overwhelming evidence against these child predators which led to guilty pleas and ultimately long prison sentences for their crimes,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Duston Slinkard.   

The Butler County Sheriff’s Office, Kansas Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Molly Gordon prosecuted the case.

Project Safe Childhood
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. 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. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.

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