Former Missouri Pastor sentenced to federal prison

A former Pineville, Missouri pastor was sentenced in federal court today for producing child pornography. 33-year-old Ryan Daniel Crawford of Austin, Arkansas, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 25 years in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Crawford to pay $2,500 in restitution to one of the victims of his molestation.

On September 16th, 2019, Crawford pleaded guilty to one count of producing child pornography. Crawford admitted that he had touched the 9-year-old victim’s genitals with his hands and that he had photographed her genitals with his cell phone while she was sleeping. Investigators located sexually explicit images of the child victim on Crawford’s cell phone.

Crawford was the assistant pastor at First Baptist Church in Pineville for approximately seven years until his arrest on state charges in 2017. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2019 and the state charges were dismissed. Crawford has remained in federal custody since his arrest on the federal indictment. After he serves time in Federal prison, Crawford will spend another 20 years on supervised release.