Lawson Convicted Sex Offender Sentenced For Child Pornography
Thursday, January 2, 2025, 11:50 A.M. ET. 2 Minute Read, By Art Fletcher: Englebrook Independent News,
KANSAS CITY, MO.- On Thursday, December 19, 2024, Lance M. Berry, 37, of Lawson, Missouri, and previously convicted child sex offender, appeared in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri and was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Howard F. Sachs to 204 months in federal prison, to be followed by ten years of supervised release for his conviction on Distribution of Child Pornography.
During the sentencing hearing, Judge Sachs ordered Berry to serve the entire 204 months of imprisonment and to pay $33,000 in restitution to his identified victims. Berry had [previously appeared on August 7, 2024, and pleaded guilty before Judge Sachs to one count of distribution of child pornography.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth W. Borgnino and documents filed with the court, Berry, who had previously been convicted in Ray County, Missouri, for the Deviated Sexual Assault of a Child under the Age of Thirteen and required to be registered as a sex offender.
During his August 7, 2024, plea hearing, Berry admitted that while registered as a sex offender, he utilized an internet peer-to-peer file-sharing program on June 1, 2022, to make digital images and video files depicting the sexual exploitation and abuse of prepubescent and pubescent children available to other users on the internet.
On June 1, 2022, an undercover officer with the Missouri State Highway Patrol was able to directly connect to Berry’s cellular phone and downloaded fourteen video files of child pornography.
According to the charging information, following his arrest, investigators conducted a court-authorized search of Berry’s cellular phone, and during that search, investigators uncovered 944 unique digital images of child pornography, including 19 digital images of sadistic and masochistic sexual violence against a minor, and 168 digital images of infants and toddlers.
The cellular phone also contained 40 video files of child pornography, which included depictions of sadistic and masochistic sexual violence of infants and toddlers.
