Greenfield Man Indicted on Federal Child Exploitation Offenses
JACKSON, Tenn. – United States Attorney D. Michael Dunavant announced the indictment of a Greenfield man on Monday, October 27, on federal child exploitation offenses.
James Anthony Morris, 57, was indicted on “three counts of using and employing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct and attempting to commit those acts, distributing and attempting to receive visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, attempting to entice and coerce a person who he believed to be a minor to engage in sexual activity for which any person could be charged with a crime, and possessing a cell phone that contained visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct,” according to a press release.
The case now will be presented in United States District Court before the Honorable Judge J. Daniel Breen in Jackson. Morris faces a potential life in prison sentence if he is convicted. Morris will not be eligible for parole if he is convicted because there is no parole in the federal system.
According to the press release, “the case is being investigated by members of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the investigative arm of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), the District Attorney’s Office for the 27th Judicial District, the Martin Police Department, and the Greenfield Police Department.
Anyone with additional information on this case is asked to contact TBI Special Agent Sarah Turner at TipsToTBi@tn.gov or 1-800-TBI-FIND.
The charges and allegations contained in the indictment are merely accusations of criminal conduct, no evidence. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and convicted through due process of law.
Assistant United States Attorneys Josh Morrow and Caroline Parish are prosecuting this case on behalf of the government.
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