FORT SMITH MAN SENTENCED TO 60 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR THE SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF TWO INFANTS

Fort Smith, Arkansas – Kenneth Elser, United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, announced that James Spiotto, age 29, of Fort Smith, was sentenced today to 60 years in federal prison without the possibility of parole followed by life of supervised release for Conspiring to Produce and Production of Child Pornography. The sentencing hearing took place before the Honorable Chief Judge P. K. Holmes, III in the United States District Court in Fort Smith.

According to the court records, in February 2016, agents with the Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce, in conjunction with Department of Homeland Security, were conducting an investigation into the online trafficking of child pornography in the Fort Smith Area. As a part of the investigation, law enforcement obtained a federal search warrant for the residence of James Spiotto. During the execution of the search warrant, law enforcement located a computer hard drive that had been thrown from a second story window. A subsequent forensic examination of the hard drive revealed a video of James Spiotto orally and digitally raping an 11-month-old female. Law enforcement also located videos of an adult female, later identified as Amelia Spiotto, molesting the same 11-month old female, and separately molesting a 3-month-old male. During a post-Miranda interview, James Spiotto admitted that he and Amelia Spiotto arranged to babysit a friend’s daughter, and thereafter made videos of themselves sexually abusing her. James Spiotto further admitted that Amelia Spiotto separately recorded herself preforming oral sex on a 3-month-old male. Law enforcement also located text messages between James Spiotto and Amelia Spiotto, in which James Spiotto was directing and encouraging Amelia to perform certain acts while she molested the minor male. James Spiotto was indicted by a federal grand jury in March of 2016, and pleaded guilty in May of 2016. His co-defendant, Amelia Marie Spiotto, pleaded guilty in February of this year and will be sentenced at a later date.

“HSI will continue to aggressively pursue individuals that prey on innocent children,” said Nicholas C. Nelson, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New Orleans. “This case should serve as an example to others that we are committed to bringing the perpetrators of these heinous crimes to justice.”

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the River Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce. Assistant United States Attorneys Dustin Roberts and Ashleigh Buckley prosecuted the case for the United States.

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 their Criminal Division Child Exploitation and Obscenity Sections (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 www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

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Related court documents may be found on Public Access to Electronic Records Website @www.Pacer.gov

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Related court documents may be found on the Public Access to Electronic Records website @ www.pacer.gov