Child pornography offender sentenced
In the news
A 28-year-old Maryville man who pleaded guilty in June to five counts of possessing child pornography stemming from an investigation conducted last summer by the Nodaway County Sheriff’s Office and the Western Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force has been sentenced to prison but will first undergo 120 days in the custody of the state’s sex offender assessment unit.
Derek J. Oberhauser admitted to the offenses in 4th District Circuit Court and was declared guilty by Presiding Circuit Judge Roger Prokes of committing five Class B felonies, each carrying a maximum prison sentence of 15 years.
According to online court records Oberhauser was sentenced this week to seven years in prison on the first four counts, to be served concurrently, but could be released upon satisfactorily completing the 120-day assessment period.
On the fifth count, Prokes sentenced Oberhauser to 15 years in prison, suspended execution, and placed the defendant on five years of supervised probation.
That sentence is consecutive to the seven-year terms, which means Oberhauser could serve a total of 22 years behind bars should he violate his probation.
Oberhauser was arrested in July 2015 after authorities found hundreds of video and still images on his computer in the course of a three-month investigation.
According to court documents, an IP address linked to Oberhauser’s residence was used to download explicit photos of children using eMule, a free peer-to-peer file sharing application.
A search warrant was issued for a Maryville residence on May 1, 2015, and authorities seized two computers, which were transported to the Heart of America Regional Computer Forensics Lab in Kansas City.
Authorities stated that the resulting analysis yielded 350 illicit videos and approximately 300 still images.
Specific evidence resulting in charges included five videos depicting girls between the approximate ages of 3 to 14 involved in sexual acts.
Court documents state that following his arrest, Oberhauser admitted to downloading child pornography using eMule while residing in Maryville and viewing the images for “personal gratification.”
