A Carriere, Mississippi man pled guilty to producing a video of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct, announced U.S. Attorney Darren J. LaMarca and Special Agent in Charge Jermicha Fomby of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Mississippi.
According to court documents, 29-year-old Joshua Christopher Stockstill enticed a minor child to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct with his cellphone camera in Pearl River County in November of 2018.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) became aware of the video and other images. On July 14, 2021, with the assistance of NCMEC, the FBI in Gulfport identified then Picayune Police Sergeant Joshua Christopher Stockstill as the producer of the video.
Stockstill is scheduled to be sentenced on February 24, 2022 at 1:30 p.m. in Gulfport, and faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, and a maximum $250,000 fine. A federal district judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the case with the assistance of the Mississippi Attorney General’s Cyber Crimes Division.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Jones is prosecuting the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.
