ST. LOUIS – A previously convicted sex offender appeared in federal court on Tuesday to be sentenced for asking underage teens to send him explicit pictures.
Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri said James W. Rankin, 47, pleaded guilty in November 2023 to one count of solicitation of child pornography and one count of transfer of obscene material.
Rankin was on parole and living in a re-entry center after serving time for first-degree statutory rape of a minor under 14 in Greene County, Missouri. He also had a prior, 2017 conviction for domestic assault and child endangerment in Christian County, after he attempted to have sexual contact with a child under 17.
In January 2023, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department in California was conducting an undercover investigation searching for would-be child predators. Undercover detectives received a message from Rankin, who used the screen name “Lonely_Nerd”.
Rankin used the social media app Whisper to send a detective—posing as a 14-year-old girl—a picture of his genitals, discussed traveling to California to meet her, and asked for sexually explicit images.
Rankin kept child pornography on his cellphone and told investigators he’d sought additional explicit pictures from others who identified themselves as minors.
A U.S. District Court judge sentenced Rankin to 17 1/2 years in federal prison.
