SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A former Nixa firefighter received a 15-year federal prison sentence with no chance of parole for receiving child pornography over the Internet. U.S. District Judge Richard Dorr sentenced Michael Benson, 41, of Nixa on Tuesday and ordered him to be on supervised release for the rest of his life after prison.
Benson pleaded guilty last July 30 for receiving child pornography. Under the terms of the federal plea agreement, Benson also pleaded guilty to state charges of child molestation, statutory sodomy and sexual exploitation of a minor child in Christian County. His 15-year state sentence will be served concurrently with the federal sentence.
Benson admitted he used a file-sharing program to download a video of child pornography from the Internet on Jan. 22, 2009. Benson possessed more than 600 images of child pornography, including images of children under the age of 12, images of sadistic and masochistic conduct, and images of a minor with whom he had contact.
