Duneweg Man Sentenced to 23 Years for Sexually Exploiting 4-Year-Old Child

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Duneweg, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for sexually exploiting a 4-year-old child to produce child pornography.

Tony Lasiter, 33, of Duneweg, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 23 years and 10 months in federal prison without parole, followed by a life term of supervised release.

On Sept. 4, 2014, Lasiter pleaded guilty to the sexual exploitation of a child. According to court documents, Lasiter used his cell phone to take nude photos of a 4-year-old child (identified in the indictment as “Jane Doe”) while she was in the bathtub and while she was being molested. Lasiter downloaded the photos to his laptop computer then transferred the files to an SD card. The files were discovered when the child victim’s father noticed the SD card in the computer and opened the files, according to court documents. The photos were taken in August 2013.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney James J. Kelleher. It was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, the Duneweg, Mo., Police Department, the Sarcoxie, Mo., Police Department and the Jasper County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department.

Project Safe Childhood

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."