Mooresville Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison

Western NC -- According to Dena J. King, US Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina,
Cody Allen Wright, 24,

of Mooresville, North Carolina, was sentenced Friday to 240 months in prison for possessing materials depicting child sexual assault involving a prepubescent kid. Wright was also required to register as a sex offender following his release from prison and to serve a lifetime under court monitoring in addition to the prison sentence.

U.S. Attorney King is joined in today's announcement by Sheriff Darren Campbell of the Iredell County Sheriff's Office, Robert Schurmeier, Director of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Charlotte Division, Michael C. Scherck.

Wright accessed and possessed photographs and videos that contained child sex abuse material between December 2019 and June 2020, according to court documents submitted and today's court session (CSAM). The Iredell County Sheriff's Office launched an investigation, according to court documents, after receiving numerous cybertips indicating a person ultimately identified as Wright was using a Dropbox account to upload and store CSAM. Law officials executed a search warrant to Wright's home as part of the investigation, and there they seized two cell phones, a laptop, and other electronic gadgets. According to a forensic examination of the devices, Wright had more than 1,500 files with pictures and videos of sexually abusing children, some of whom were under the age of 12.

Law authorities discovered child sexual assault material as well as Wright's usage of messaging services like Kik and Discord to discuss and exchange it with other people. In one conversation, Wright gave advice on how to access CSAM on the dark web to another app user.

On September 26, 2022, Wright entered a guilty plea to possessing child pornography involving a prepubescent kid under the age of 12.

After the court determined that the defendant had sexually abused a juvenile, U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell ruled that Wright must serve the maximum sentence allowed by law. According to court documents, Wright was detained by local law enforcement during the course of the federal investigation and was later found guilty in state court of having sex with a juvenile he met online. Following the state's conviction, Wright received a 155-month jail term. Wright's federal sentence of 150 months in prison must be served concurrently with the state sentence, according to Judge Bell's decision.

U.S. Attorney King congratulated the Iredell County District Attorney's Office for their crucial assistance and praised the FBI, the SBI, and the Iredell County Sheriff's Office for their investigation of the case in making today's statement.

The case was prosecuted by assistant US attorneys Daniel Cervantes and Stephanie Spaugh from the US attorney's office in Charlotte.

The Department of Justice announced Project Safe Childhood, a national initiative to tackle the scourge of child sexual exploitation and abuse, in May 2006. This case was brought as part of that program. Operation Safe Childhood is a federal, state, and local effort spearheaded by the U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the DOJ's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section to find, capture, and punish those who exploit children as well as to identify and rescue victims.

WNCTiMES by Marjorie Farrington