United States Attorney Alison J. Ramsdell announced today that U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Viken has sentenced a Lead, South Dakota, man convicted of Receipt of Child Pornography. The sentencing took place on April 14, 2023.

William Jacob Stone, 73, was sentenced to five years in federal prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund.

Stone was indicted for Receipt of Child Pornography and Possession of Child Pornography by a federal grand jury in September of 2021. He pleaded guilty on December 16, 2022.

Between March 2020 and June 2021, Stone used the internet to download visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. He then used Adobe PhotoShop software and his Apple iPad to superimpose naked images of himself sexually abusing the child pornography images he had downloaded, as well as clothed photos of local children known to Stone through his decades-long career as a school bus driver. This conduct was brought to the attention of law enforcement through a Cybertip sent by Adobe to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

This case was brought 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. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, Pennington County Sheriff’s Office, and the Rapid City Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Knox Sazama prosecuted the case.

Stone was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Original source can be found here.