North Texas woman sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for sending and receiving child pornography text messages

DALLAS — A 24-year-old north Texas woman was sentenced this week to 14 years in federal prison and a 10-year term of supervised release, following her January guilty plea for transporting and shipping child pornography.

According to documents filed in the case, Amber Schmidt, of Garland, Texas, used cell phones and text messages to send child pornography images to others. One of the individuals to whom she sent child pornography was Gary Lee Jackson, 26, also of Garland. He was sentenced in May to 30 years in federal prison following his December guilty plea for receiving and possessing child pornography. He admitted receiving numerous child pornography images on his cell phone from Schmidt.

Schmidt admitted that she sent the child pornography to Jackson because she knew he "was into that."

Schmidt also admitted that she sent child pornography to other people because in order to receive child pornography, you had to send child pornography as well.

Schmidt further admitted that she possessed child pornography images that included bondage and other sadistic acts involving minors. Subpoenaed cell phone records contained chat logs of Schmidt chatting with not only Gary Lee Jackson, but others with whom she was trading child pornography. In these chats, Schmidt discussed her desire to receive images of young children engaged in sexual behavior. When she received the images, she acknowledged how sexually aroused she was by them.

This investigation was conducted by the Dallas Police Department's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Garland Police Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations.

This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders and child sex traffickers. ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE or by completing its online tip form. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.