Two Forrest County men each pleaded guilty to one count of child exploitation and were sentenced on Thursday by Circuit Judge Robert Helfrich.
Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced sentencing in three cases prosecuted by the Cyber Crime and Public Integrity Divisions of the Attorney General’s Office.
Matthew Thomas Lumpkin, 33, was sentenced to 40 years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, with eight years to serve and the remaining time suspended. He will be subject to five years of post-release supervision.
Lumpkin was ordered to pay a $1,000 assessment to the Mississippi Children’s Trust Fund, $1,000 to the Mississippi Crime Victim’s Compensation Fund, and all court costs.
Dylan Gentry, 25, was sentenced to 25 years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, with six years to serve and the remaining time suspended. He will be subject to five years of post-release supervision.
Gentry was ordered to pay a $1,000 assessment to the Mississippi Children’s Trust Fund, $1,000 to the Mississippi Crime Victim’s Compensation Fund, and all court costs.
In Lowndes County, James Tracey, 27, pleaded guilty to one count of child exploitation and was sentenced Friday morning by Lowndes County Circuit Judge James T. Kitchens Jr. Tracey was sentenced to 40 years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, with seven years to serve and 33 years suspended. He will be subject to five years of post-release supervision.
Tracey was ordered to pay a $1,000 assessment to the Mississippi Children’s Trust Fund, $1,000 to the Mississippi Crime Victim’s Compensation Fund, and all court costs.
The three defendants will be required to register as sex offenders and will be required to serve their sentences day-for-day without the possibility of parole.
Fitch is the chief legal officer and advisor for the State of Mississippi on both civil and criminal matters. She has more than 35 years of both private and government law experience. Fitch's responsibility is to represent public officials and governmental agencies and to issue legal opinions that interpret state law.
“I am committed to protecting Mississippi’s children from dangerous predators, holding them accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” she said. “I appreciate the courts’ decisions and commitment to ensuring justice was served.”
The cases originated after investigators with the Mississippi Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, led by the Attorney General’s Office, discovered that individuals uploaded sexual abuse images to an email account in one case and a cloud storage account in two others. Using several techniques, investigators were able to identify suspects who later admitted ownership of the devices.