LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — According to reports, a registered sex offender from Michigan has been convicted of committing multiple sex offenses in Arkansas after a three-day trial.
On Wednesday, 33-year-old Jeremy Robert Ward of Marine City, MI was found guilty by a federal jury on all nine counts he was indicted on: one count of interstate travel with the purpose of enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity, six counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, one count of receipt of child pornography, and one count of travel with the purpose to engage in illicit sexual activity with a minor.
Ward will be sentenced at a later date by United States District Judge Kristine G. Baker, who presided over the trial.
“This defendant, who is already a convicted sex offender, continued this abhorrent behavior by acting on his desire to have sex with a minor. He used social media to seek out the victim and took advantage of her innocence,” said Jonathan D. Ross, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. “This verdict the jury reached sends a clear message that Arkansas juries will not hesitate to convict sex offenders for this type of conduct. If you seek to have sex with children, you will be caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent under federal law.”
In 2013, Ward was previously convicted of three counts of possession of child sexually abusive material and one count of accosting a child for an immoral purpose. He is a registered sex offender in the state of Michigan.
Ward began chatting with a 12-year-old minor online via Snapchat in September 2022, exchanging messages with the victim for three weeks before attempting to travel to Arkansas to meet her.
On October 15, 2022, he met her face-to-face when he approached her in his pickup truck while she was riding her bike near her neighborhood in Bryant.
During her encounter with Ward, the victim began recording part of their exchange. Ward can be heard telling her “I was hoping to take you home” and “I just wish she [her mom] would let you go, especially since I drove all the way down here.”
Ward also told the minor that she must “think I’m gonna kidnap you or something,” to which she replied, “You probably are about to at this point.”
He later asked if she knew of any “private spots,” they could go to in an attempt to find a more secluded place to be alone with her.
Around this time, her father noticed that she was outside of the area she was allowed to be after checking a tracking app connecting their phones.
Her parents showed up at her location, where her father discovered her lying on the grass with Ward, whose pants were around his ankles. At this time, he fled into the woods.
The minor later testified at trial that Ward attempted to commit sexual acts with her while she was in the field with Ward.
Further investigation revealed that the victim and Ward had previously communicated through video messages, some of which Ward recorded on his phone.
The messages were recovered from Ward’s phone and included video and still images of the nude minor victim in the shower.
“Each year thousands of children are targeted and victimized by child predators. Mr. Ward’s heinous crimes highlight the prevalent threat Arkansas youth and families face,” said Special Agent in Charge Alicia D. Corder of FBI’s Little Rock Field Office. “This case is yet another example of FBI Little Rock’s commitment to working with our partners to target individuals who seek to exploit the most vulnerable members of our community.”
The statutory penalty for sexual exploitation of a minor ranges from not less than 25 years to not more than 50 years. The statutory penalty for traveling with the purpose of engaging in sexual activity with a minor is not less than 10 years imprisonment and up to life imprisonment.
The statutory penalty for receipt of child pornography is not less than 15 years and not more than 40 years imprisonment. The statutory penalty for travel with the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual activity with a minor is not more than 30 years imprisonment.
All offenses of conviction include a potential penalty of not more than a $250,000 fine and not less than five years to life of supervised release.
The FBI conducted this investigation, and Assistant United States Attorneys Kristin Bryant and Amanda Fields prosecuted the case.