SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Merriam Woods man was sentenced in federal court today for the sexual exploitation of two child victims.
Billy Rae Clark, 29, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes to 17 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Clark to 30 years of supervised release following incarceration.
On April 12, 2022, Clark pleaded guilty to two counts of the sexual exploitation of a child. Clark admitted that he secretly recorded a 15-year-old minor, identified in court documents as Jane Doe 1, while she was in the bathroom taking a shower. Clark positioned his cell phone in the bathroom so that it faced the shower and used it to record video of the child victim. Jane Doe 1 discovered the cell phone and the video; she reported it to another person, who then contacted law enforcement.
When investigators searched Clark’s cell phone, they also found 19 images of a second child victim, an 11-year-old identified in court documents as Jane Doe 2, including images of child [censored]ography.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ami Harshad Miller. It was investigated by the Taney County, Mo., Sheriff’s Office, Homeland Security Investigations and the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force.
Project Safe Childhood
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”