Darrell Ray Sanders, 29 of Festus has been sentenced to 11 years in prison after admitting to possessing child pornography. He was arrested in Kirkwood after approaching children on the street, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office reported.
U.S. District Judge Ronnie L. White on Wednesday, July 10, sentenced Sanders in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. In February, Sanders pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography and possessing child pornography, court documents said.
According to the guilty plea agreement, Kirkwood Police on April 12, 2022, were notified that a man had approached children in the North Van Buren neighborhood. Officers on April 13, 2022, arrested Sanders outside a North Van Buren home where he was working as a painter.
Sanders told officers he had child pornography on two cell phones. Investigators found approximately 10 images and two videos on one phone and approximately 20 images and 12 videos on the other phone, the guilty plea said.
Kirkwood Police and Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Chapman prosecuted the case.
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 the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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, visit justice.gov/psc.
The St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has charged Sanders with two counts of enticement or attempted enticement of a child, which are unclassified felonies, and possession of child pornography, a class B felony, according to court records.
The enticement charges each carry a penalty of five to 30 years in prison, and the possession of child pornography charge is punishable by five to 15 years in prison.