Child pornographer caught after 18 years, kiddy porn hidden in secret compartment

Sex offender on the run for 18 years caught

He left kiddy porn in a secret compartment

Ricky Randall Rex Smith walked off of a construction job and left his truck and home made trailer parked at a house. The trailer had a hidden compartment and inside the compartment was kiddy porn. That was in 2005. Rex Randall was arrested in 2006 and charges filed in 2007. He has been fighting the child pornography charges since then.

"The jurors were waiting to be empanelled"

Today, Rex Randall Smith was due for trial for producing, transporting and possessing visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. The jurors were waiting to be empanelled. Opening statements would soon follow.  In a surprise move, Rex Randall decided to take a plea.

Rex Randall Smith admitted to United States District Judge W. Keith Watkins of his filming the sexual abuse of children he was caring for including a 3 year old girl. Rex Randall Smith was in Longview Texas in May of 2000 when most of the filming occurred. The pedophile also admitted to transporting videotapes into Dale County, Alabama in 2005, which is where the truck and trailer were when the child porn was discovered. , U.S. Attorney Leura G. Canary.

"Smith brought the videotapes across state lines"

A subsequent plea hearing was held today in front of Federal Magistrate Judge Susan R. Walker, Title 18, United States Code, Section 2251(a) makes it a crime for any person to employ, use, persuade, induce, entice, or coerce an individual who has not attained the age of 18 to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of that conduct. The crime in this case was completed when Smith brought the videotapes across state lines, thereby invoking federal jurisdiction.

This was not Rex Randall Smith’s first time around on child pornography charges. When he was 23 he was convicted for sodomy of a child under 14. He had been a fugitive from justice for nearly 18 years. The man who steals the youth of innocent children used a variety of aliases to keep out of the clutches of the law.  He kept on the move and lived in multiple states, including Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, California, Texas and Alabama. It was in Louisiana where he finally met the law once again.

"a variety of law enforcement efforts were involved"

As is typical in child pornography cases, a variety of law enforcement efforts were involved, including agents from the FBI, Ozark Police Department and the Hartford Police Department. The 55 year old is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Nathan D. Stump and Brandon K. Essig.

Project Safe Childhood, which is led by United States Attorneys’ Offices, joins federal, state and local resources to bring child molesters who exploit children individuals who exploit children via the Internet to justice. Project Safe Childhood also is dedicated to rescuing the victims of on-going child pornography. www.projectsafechildhood.gov/

 

Ricky Randall Rex Smith will have a long time to think about the lives he has ruined. The minimum sentence for producing child pornography is 15 years. Because he has a prior conviction he may get life under the ‘two strikes and you are out’ law, Title 18, United States Code, Section 3559(e). Likely the plea made today was done so on the chance the judge will be lenient. There is also a hefty fine to be paid in the amount of $250,000 should the child molester and child pornographer see life as a free man.