FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Two Northwest Arkansas men convicted on charges involving child sex abuse materials have been sentenced to a combined 20 years.
Earnest Dean Easley, 72, of Gravette, was sentenced on Jan. 10 to 14 years without the possibility of parole. He was convicted of transporting child sex abuse material through the internet, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Arkansas (WDAR).
Court documents say that on June 28, 2022, an FBI taskforce officer received information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that Easley had sent an email containing images of child sexual abuse material.
A search warrant was served at Easley's residence, and additional child porn was discovered, some of which appeared to be self-produced, according to the release.
"Easley later admitted that years prior, while living in Texas, he had taken lascivious photographs of a minor female relative while she was sleeping," the release said.
The following day, Jan. 11, Lyle Kenneth Smith, 53, of Gentry, was sentenced to just over six years in prison without the possibility of parole.
WDAR says that in August 2021, Smith was discovered to have been actively searching for child porn on an online peer-to-peer site known as Freenet. At the time, FBI taskforce officers were conducting a nationwide investigation into Freenet.
A search warrant was served at Smith's residence and multiple devices containing child sex abuse materials were obtained, the release said.
Smith later admitted to having collected child sex abuse material for years, according to the release.
WDAR says that the FBI, the Benton County Sheriff's Office, and the Bentonville Police Department assisted in the investigation.
The release says that these cases were part of a nationwide project to combat child exploitation.
"These cases were prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice," the release said. "Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims."
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