Show-Me State Times

"ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Tuesday sentenced a registered sex offender who sought child pornography from a 13-year-old to 20 years in prison.

Jace Chandler Hickman, now 42, of Washington County, Missouri, was a registered sex offender in October of 2019, when he began using Facebook messenger to communicate with a 13-year-old girl. Hickman told the victim that he was 19, and later said he was 16. He engaged in sexually explicit communications with her and repeatedly asked her to video chat and to meet him in person. He did convince her to send him an explicit photo.

Hickman, who used the names Chandler Scott and Chandler Dickman on Facebook, was convicted in Maries County, Missouri in 2018 of two counts of possession of child pornography.

Hickman pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in February to one count of possession of child pornography. Due to his prior conviction, the crime carried a mandatory minimum prison term of 10 years and a maximum of 20 years.

The FBI, the St. Clair Police Department, and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Bateman prosecuted 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.