Missouri sex offender admits possessing, sending child pornography
ST. LOUIS – A registered sex offender from Farmington, Missouri on Friday admitted possessing child sexual abuse material and sending it to his girlfriend’s father.
Stephen Curtis Mincey Watters, 39, of Farmington, Missouri, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of possession of child pornography as a prior offender. He admitted sending four images containing child sexual abuse material via Facebook on Aug. 3, 2023, to the father of his girlfriend. That triggered a cyber tipline report to law enforcement from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children.
On Sept. 28, 2023, Missouri State Highway Patrol investigators conducted a court-approved search of Watters’ home. Watters admitted searching for and viewing child pornography. Investigators also recovered communications between Watters and his girlfriend’s father, Brandel Lee Akers.
Akers told investigators that Watters had been sending him child sexual abuse material for about one year via text messages and Facebook.
Watters is scheduled to be sentenced May 7. The U.S. Attorney’s Office will recommend a sentence of 12 years in prison.
Akers, now 55, of St. Francois County, was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of possession of child pornography.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Missouri State Technical Assistance Team investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson is prosecuting the case.
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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.