SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A Springfield man who is a registered sex offender was sentenced in federal court May 14 for receiving child sexual abuse material, which was discovered on his cellphone during a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Kansas City investigation into threats he made to a sheriff’s department employee.
Joshua Emanuel Wood, 46, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough to 15 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Wood to 10 years of supervised release following incarceration.
“HSI is deeply committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of our communities,” said HSI Kansas City acting Special Agent in Charge Mark Zito. “I am pleased to see justice served with the sentencing of Joshua Wood. His 15-year sentence serves as a stern reminder that we will not tolerate any form of child exploitation.”
On Dec. 12, 2023, Wood pleaded guilty to one count of receiving and distributing child pornography.
Wood is required to register as a sex offender due to his 2018 conviction of possessing child sexual abuse material. The investigation began when Wood left 41 threatening voice mail messages on May 29 and 30, 2022, for an employee of the Greene County Sheriff’s Department who was in charge of registering sex offenders. The sex offender registrar reported those threats and law enforcement officers arrested Wood; the state felony charge related to this harassment is still pending.
Wood had a Google Pixel cellphone in his possession when he was arrested. Investigators found child sexual abuse material on the phone, including 107 images, including depictions of infants being raped, as well as web searches for child sexual abuse material and visits to suspected child sexual abuse material websites. According to court documents, the forensic analysis of Wood’s cellphone demonstrated that he had been wiping his cell phone frequently, and the child sexual abuse files had been received over a period of just a few days. Because he was regularly wiping his cellphone, it is difficult to know the extent of his involvement with child sexual abuse material.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie L. Wan. It was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the Greene County Sheriff’s Department, the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, and the Springfield Police Department.
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 U.S. 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.
Learn more about our mission to combat child exploitation in our community on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @HSIKansasCity.