Registered sex offender found guilty of possessing child pornography

A St Clair County man has been convicted of crimes against a child. 39 year old Billy Puckett of Collins, a registered sex offender, was found guilty of one count of receiving child pornography, during a bench trial held in federal court on Monday. Puckett was arrested after being pulled over by a trooper with the Highway Patrol in Bolivar, in August 2020. The trooper, who learned that Puckett was a registered sex offender, searched Puckett’s vehicle and found a cell phone plugged into a cigarette lighter. When the phone’s screen activated, the trooper noticed Puckett had Facebook and Snapchat applications on the phone, which were not authorized due to Puckett’s status as a registered sex offender. The trooper seized Puckett’s phone, on which he located multiple images of child pornography, and Puckett was arrested. The followup investigation led to the discovery of hundreds of images of child pornography. Under federal statutes, Puckett is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of 40 years in federal prison without parole. Formal sentencing will be held at a later date.