New Madrid County man sentenced to prison for child pornography

A New Madrid County man was sentenced to federal prison on a felony child pornography charge, the Sikeston Standard Democrat reported.

Joseph T. Mister Jr., 24, was sentenced to 80 months imprisonment on one count of possession of child pornography. Mister appeared before U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. Wednesday in Cape Girardeau.

Previously with his plea, Mister admitted that on April 26, 2009, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at his New Madrid County residence. When the officers arrived, Mister announced that he knew the officers were there, because of child pornography and told the officers his computer was in his bedroom.

The officers seized the computer and other items.

During an interview at the New Madrid County Jail, Mister explained that he regularly downloaded pornography via a peer to peer file sharing program, where he accidentally acquired a video depicting an underage female. Mister then continued to download similar material. Mister admitted that he knew searching for, downloading, and possessing child pornography was illegal.

Forensic analysis of Mister's computer revealed that he possessed more than 600 images of child pornography, that is images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.