A Maryville, Mo., man who is a registered sex offender pleaded guilty in federal court to charges related to child pornography.
Edward Grimes, 58, of Maryville, pleaded guilty before U.S. Chief District Judge Greg Kays to the charges contained in a Sept. 19, 2014, federal indictment. Grimes, a registered sex offender, has prior felony convictions for sexual abuse and a criminal sexual act in New York.
By pleading guilty, Grimes admitted that he attempted to distribute child pornography over the Internet on March 29, 2013; that he attempted to receive child pornography over the Internet on Dec. 31, 2013; and that he possessed child pornography on Feb. 12, 2014. Grimes must forfeit to the government two desktop computers, a laptop computer, four hard drives and a thumb drive that were used to commit the offenses.
The government also filed notice today of intent to rely on Grimes’s prior felony sex offenses for purposes of sentencing, which would subject Grimes to a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison without parole for each of the counts of attempting to distribute and to receive child pornography over the Internet, and to a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison without parole for possessing child pornography. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.
