DES MOINES, IA – On December 7, 2018, Raymond Wayne Eugene Hall, age 33, was sentenced on federal child pornography charges to 40 years in federal prison and a life term of supervised release in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.

Hall, who resided in Des Moines, Iowa, pleaded guilty on June 11, 2018, to two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, otherwise known as production of child pornography. Hall pleaded guilty to making child pornography with a hidden camera, he also admitted to making child pornography of another victim, namely recording himself engaged in various sex acts with the victim. Hall made some of the videos using his cell phone, and stored the child pornography on his personal laptop computer.

Hall’s sentence was enhanced by United States District Court Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger due to his criminal history. He had previously been convicted in 2006 in Polk County, Iowa of sexual exploitation of children for collecting child pornography. As a consequence of the 2006 state court conviction, Hall was required to register on the Iowa Sex Offender Registry. His sentence was enhanced, in part, based on this prior conviction and his status as a registered sex offender.

“Prosecuting people who prey on children is one of the top priorities of our office,” stated United States Attorney Marc Krickbaum. “Raymond Hall is precisely the type of sexual predator we need to take off the street.” Krickbaum added, “we have strong partnerships established with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to provide maximum pursuit of child sexual predators. The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office became aware of Hall’s activities, partnered with the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation, and then got federal authorities involved. This was a total team effort, and will keep the community safer for decades to come.”

The case was a joint federal-state-local effort, involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Child Exploitation Task Force, the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office, and the Wayne County Attorney’s Office.

The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa as part of the United States Department of Justice’s “Project Safe Childhood” initiative, which was started in 2006 as a nation-wide effort to combine law enforcement investigations and prosecutions, community action, and public awareness in order to reduce the incidence of sexual exploitation of children.

Any persons having knowledge of a child being sexually abused are encouraged to call the Iowa Sexual Abuse Hotline at 1-800-284-7821.