Woman sentenced to federal prison for distribution of child pornography

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - Jessica Roxana Wheeler, of Lubbock, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for receipt and distribution of child pornography. She will also have supervised release for 10 years after serving her prison sentence. She will have to register as a sex offender. She received the maximum federal prison sentence.

The court documents show Jessica Roxanna Wheeler and Edward Lee Wheeler Jr. both received and distributed child pornography and also produced child pornography. The photos were graphic images of the child nude, exposing her genitals and pubic area.

According to the documents, on June 16, 2020, a task force officer was notified of a case involving child pornography images of a 13-year-old being sent through Facebook messenger from Jessica Wheeler to Edward Wheeler.

Jessica and Edward are married. Jessica is from Lubbock and Edward lived in Russell Springs, Kentucky.

One of the child’s relatives said he logged onto Jessica’s Facebook account and went through her messages on June 14, 2020. The relative looked at the message exchange between Jessica and Edward.

The relative found sexually explicit images of the child sent from Jessica to Edward.

The relative also saw several messages between Jessica and Edward discussing the child taking a sexual enhancement drug and sexual acts that needed to be performed on the child, including that she would need to have sex with Edward.

Court documents reveal the intent was for Edward to impregnate the child in order to sell the baby to a European agency that would perform tests on the baby every four months for 18 years. Edward told Jessica the agency offered $42 billion for this exchange. Jessica told the child about the offer and told Edward the child was considering it. The investigation revealed the agency did not exist. In order to track the performance of the enhancers on the child, Edwards told Jessica to take sexually explicit nude photos of the child and described the photos he wanted. Once Jessica had the pornographic images of the child, she sent them to Edward using her cell phone and Facebook messenger.

Edward Lee Wheeler Jr’s sentencing has been reset for January 13, 2022. He pleaded guilty in September to the production of child pornography. He faces 15 to 30 years in federal prison. He will also have to register as a sex offender.