CASPER — A 27-year-old Evansville man who had been on parole for sexually abusing a teen girl was sentenced to 45 to 100 years in prison Friday in Natrona County District Court for possessing up to 300 files of child pornography.
Jacob Andrew Dudley stood before Judge Joshua Eames with defense attorney Dylan Rosalez as Rosalez asked the judge to follow the sentence outlined in his plea deal.
That was 45 to 100 years in prison entered on Jan. 9 with Natrona County Chief Deputy District Attorney Blaine Nelson.
Under terms of the deal, Dudley pleaded guilty to 16 counts of sexual exploitation of children. Seven of the 16 counts involved receiving or distributing child pornography, while six other charges were dismissed.
“He has accepted responsibility for his conduct here,” Rosalez said. “It provides protection for the community.”
Nelson told the court that he had a victim’s impact statement provided by federal authorities from a victim of child pornography.
He said the plea deal reflects “a specific deterrence” that included consecutive sentences for Dudley’s actions.
Eames told Dudley that he was going to follow the plea deal and had read the victim’s letter, along with other statements provided to the court.
“This sentence is nearly what we would see in homicide cases,” he said. “It’s one of the most difficult cases to deal with and see.”
Eames said that victims of child pornography are continually victimized after their images are shared.
He said victims are given notice by authorities when their images are downloaded and that the judge was aware of one victim who had received “22,000 notifications.”
Eames asked Dudley if he had anything to say prior to sentencing.
“No, your honor,” Dudley said.
The Background
Charges against Dudley stemmed from a tip given to the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) on Feb. 20, 2025, from the messaging application Kik.
Kik is an app known to law enforcement be used by sexual predators to connect with underage victims and to contact and share sexually explicit material with each other.
Seven files of apparent child pornography had been downloaded, according to investigators.
That was followed by a second tip on June 24, 2025, and additional tips on July 24, July 25, Aug. 29 and Sept. 1, all reporting suspected images of child pornography.
DCI agents investigated and confirmed the images related to the tips showed child pornography, including images of adult on child abuse and children’s sexual anatomy.
When a DCI investigator reviewed data for one of the Kik accounts and usernames on Sept. 8, he found a content folder with 239 images and videos.
“Every image and video was explicitly sexual and pornographic in nature,” the affidavit states.
The DCI agent also found “numerous chats/messages” related to the possession of child pornography as well as the sexual assault and abuse.
The affidavit says the content of the messages “appeared to identify Jacob Dudley as the account holder because of the numerous messages discussing the alleged sexual abuse” of a victim.
“Due to the heinous and grotesque nature of the messages, the content is not documented in this affidavit,” the DCI agent wrote.
When interviewed, Dudley admitted to the DCI investigator that he opened three to four Kik accounts during the year he’d been out of prison and had received about 100 to 300 files of child pornography during that time.
The affidavit states he was “sharing the files” to get other pornography.
“I don’t go out and seek, like, look at little girls, you know,” he told the DCI agent, according to the affidavit. “But I guess on a phone, pictures, and stuff, I would save them and share ‘em."
The Sentence
Eames sentenced Dudley to five to eight years in prison for the first five counts of sexual exploitation of children to be served concurrently, and another five to eight years for counts six through nine.
The judge ordered those to be served concurrent to one another but consecutive to the first five charges.
The judge sentenced Dudley to five to 12 years for counts 10 through 16 that involved receiving or distributing child pornography.
That group of charges will be consecutive to one another, and consecutive to the previous two groupings.
The judge also ordered that Dudley’s sentence in his child pornography case would be consecutive to his previous sentence for sexually abusing a teen.
Dudley had been on parole for that sentence when he established his Kik accounts and put the child pornography images and videos on two phones.
Dudley was given credit for 234 days of jail time related to the child porn case.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
