East Texas 26-year-old sentenced to 25 years for production and distribution of child pornography
Caleb Layne Crawford, 26 (Source: Bowie County Sheriff's Office via TXKtoday)
BOWIE, Texas - A Texarkana man has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for child exploitation offenses, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.
25-year federal sentence
Caleb Layne Crawford, 26, was sentenced to 300 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Robert W. Schroeder III on Tuesday after pleading guilty to production of child pornography, according to U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs for the Eastern District of Texas.
The backstory:
According to court documents, law enforcement agencies received a tip in December 2024 from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding the upload of child pornography images from an account linked to Crawford. An investigation determined that Crawford used his cellphone to produce sexually explicit photos of a child victim and subsequently distributed the images to others using a social media application.
The case was investigated jointly by the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division, the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Criminal Investigations Division, and the Texarkana Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Richards prosecuted the case.
Federal officials noted the prosecution was conducted under Project Safe Childhood, a Department of Justice initiative launched in 2006 that coordinates federal, state, and local law enforcement resources to combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse.
The Source: Information in this article is from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Texas.