Levi William Welker, Child Sex Trafficking, Oklahoma 2016

A Tulsa man has been sentenced to 17 years in federal prison for his role in child sex crimes. Levi William Welker, 29, of Tulsa, was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison followed by seven years on supervised release for distribution of child pornography, enticing a minor, and tampering with a witness and evidence. The crimes were committed over the past two weeks, and come on the heels of Operation Broken Heart, a two-month, nationwide operation that netted almost 1,700 suspected online child sex offenders and identified 308 offenders who either produced child pornography or committed child sexual abuse.

The Project Safe Childhood initiative marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and identifies and rescues victims. U.S. Attorney Trent Shores said, “Our Project Safe Childhood initiative is crucial to ferreting out criminal deviants who try to sexually exploit minors. We conduct local undercover sting operations as well as use cyber-based investigative techniques to identify these child predators.”

In February 2016, Welker shared child pornography using a bit torrent file sharing network, investigators initially discovered 68 images on a torrent file which was traced to Welker’s IP address. During a search, investigators located more than 7,000 image and video files of child pornography. Welker also admitted that he later used multiple social media apps and communications devices to manipulate and lure two minor children to engage in sexual activity with him.

Welker pretended to be 16 years old and provided the victims with cell phones in order to secretly communicate. When one of the children’s parents became suspicious, they reported Welker to the Tulsa Police Department. After the investigation commenced, police discovered that Welker messaged one of the victim’s social media accounts, asking her to lie to police and destroy evidence. He also destroyed other digital evidence in an effort to thwart the investigation.

The Court remanded Welker into the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility. The FBI and Tulsa Police Department investigated these crimes.

Welker was sentenced on February 27, 2019, in the Northern District of Oklahoma.

The Project Safe Childhood initiative is a critical tool in the fight against child sex crimes. U.S. Attorney Shores said, “There is no more righteous cause than protecting children.”

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndok/pr/us-attorney-highlights-recent-project-safe-childhood-convictions