A Greenbrier County man has pleaded guilty to one felony count of distribution and attempted distribution of child pornography.
Jack Michael Smith, 34, formerly of Sunset Drive in Alderson, entered his guilty plea on Friday, Oct. 1, before U.S. District Judge Frank W. Volk at the federal courthouse in Beckley.
This guilty plea follows an extensive investigation that began on Oct. 13, 2019, when a U.S. Department of Homeland Security special agent received information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a person had uploaded 11 sexually explicit photos of an underage female to the social media site Tumblr.
Investigators soon linked Smith to an email address used with Tumblr and discovered that he had also uploaded images of another underage female to Kik messenger on March 22, 2019, from a Ronceverte address.
Investigators were able to identify the girl whose images had been posted to Tumblr. She stated that between June 2019-May 2020, Smith would visit her home and perform sexual acts with her, according to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of West Virginia.
Following the issuance of a search warrant for Smith’s Alderson home, investigators were able to review his cell phone where they found that he and his then-girlfriend, Kimberly Crookshanks, discussed their “mutual desire to sexually abuse infants and children for their sexual gratification and produce videos and images of the abuse,” the complaint continues.
Crookshanks has been relocated to the state of Oregon, where she is currently in custody at the Multnomah County Inverness Jail. She faces one count of production and attempted production of child pornography. A jury trial was originally scheduled for Sept. 28 before U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Mosman in Portland, however, her attorney filed a motion on Sept. 14 to have the trial continued.
According to the motion, attorney Lynne B. Morgan stated that the purpose for a trial continuance is for “additional time to complete discovery, to complete the fact and the mitigation investigation into this matter, to continue to research the applicable law and determine what, if any, pretrial motions should be litigated, and to determine whether this case is best resolved by settlement or trial.”
Smith faces a 15-30 year prison sentence, up to $250,000 fine, victim restitution, registry as a sex offender and, upon leaving prison, must be under supervised release.
His sentencing is scheduled for January 2022.
Before his plea, Smith was indicted on two felony counts of distribution and attempted distribution of child pornography and one count of being in possession of child pornography.
The West Virginia Daily News will provide updated information as it becomes available.
