Earl G. Rice Jr., 64, of Dittmer has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of gun crimes. He already was serving a 50-year prison term for sexually exploiting an Illinois minor and producing child pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.
U.S. District Judge John A. Ross handed down the 10-year sentence for the gun crimes on July 22. That term will run consecutively with the prison terms for the sexual exploitation charges, for a total of 60 years, according to court documents.
On April 2018, the Jefferson County Sheriff Office received a tip that Rice, who had active arrest warrants and a pending sex charge in St. Clair County in Illinois, was preparing to flee to avoid arrest. When he was arrested, Rice had a .45-caliber pistol in his pocket, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.
After his arrest, deputies found he had more than 70 other rifles and shotguns, as well as two silencers, the report said.
In May 2018, Rice was indicted in the U.S. District Court in St. Louis on one felony count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and one felony count of possession of firearms without a serial number. A jury found Rice guilty of those charges in March, the according to the report.
Previously, in February 2018, Rice drove from his home in Dittmer to a minor’s home in Belleville, Ill., and took her to a motel where he sexually abused her and produced sexually explicit images of her, the report said.
In 2019, Rice was indicted in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Illinois for child enticement, travel with the intent to engage in sex with a minor and producing sexually explicit images of that minor, and he was convicted of those charges last year and sentenced to 50 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The case involving the gun charges was investigated by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Cassandra Wiemken prosecuted the case.