Mountain Home man pleads guilty to possessing sex images of girl

James William Carr IV, 23, of Mountain Home, pled guilty in United

States District Court Thursday to possession of sexually explicit images of a minor, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced.

In April 2012, an Elmore County woman reported to the Boise Police Department that Carr was texting sexually provocative messages to her 14-year-old daughter. Detectives investigated the claim and, with the mother's permission, assumed the child's identity and continued the text conversation. During the chats that followed, Carr sent "her" sexually explicit images of himself and close-up images of the genitals of another juvenile female. Carr repeatedly asked the "minor" to send him images of her bare private parts.

The investigators contacted Carr at his place of employment, a fast food restaurant in Mountain Home, and seized his cell phone. A forensic examiner later found 35 images of another minor female (not the 14-year-old) on the phone, in which the girl was either fully clothed or in various states of undress, including full frontal nudity, and 14 close-up images of the minor female's genitals and pubic area.

The charge of possession of sexually explicit images of minors is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, and up to lifetime supervised release.

Sentencing is set for Oct. 29, 2012, before U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge at the federal courthouse in Boise.