SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Angela Marie Brown, 39, of Springfield pleaded guilty today, Oct. 20, to engaging in a child exploitation enterprise from Jan. 2017 to Nov. 2019.
Brown is one of five people who pleaded guilty in federal court for their roles in the child exploitation ring. The other people are:
Kevin Grant McMillan, 35, of Springfield.Christine Marie Rossiter, 36, of Springfield.Amber Marie Baley, 38, of Springfield.Casie Dee Rice, 52, of Branson.
All five people face a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison without parole and up to life sentences.
According to a press release from the United States Department of Justice, Brown admitted to sexually exploiting several minors, as well as receiving and distributing child pornography.
An investigation into the group’s activities began when law enforcement was notified in May 2019 that McMillan uploaded three child pornography images to his email account. McMillan was also being investigated in a second case that involved an 8-year-old victim.
In Nov. 2019, law enforcement searched McMillan’s residence and contacted 15- and 17-year-old victims. Police took five laptops, two hard drives, a tablet, a cell phone, and seven USB or micro SD cards.
Law enforcement found pornography of the 8-year-old, 15-year-old, and a toddler among the 27,542 pornographic images and videos “of subjects whose age is difficult to determine and child erotica” that they collected from the electronics. Law enforcement also found 682 images and videos of bestiality pornography and 111 images and videos of child exploitive animated pornography.
Text messages showed that Brown and McMillan spoke about sexually assaulting a 13-year-old and other children and women. Brown said she was interested in helping McMillan drug and assault these victims.