Former Joplin Schools tech employee sentenced to 20 years in prison

Former Joplin R-8 technology department employee Ronny Justin Myers will spend the next 20 years in prison.

U. S. District Court Judge Beth Phillips today sentenced Myers to 20 years for coercion or enticement of an underage female and 10 years for transfer of obscene material to minors, with the sentences to run concurrently.

The sentencing took place at the conclusion of a 55-minute hearing in which three witnesses, including Myers' former girlfriend, who was the mother of the victim, and the victim's grandmother testified about what he had done and the effect it had on the girl, whom Myers had first abused at age nine.

It was his attempt to reconnect with the child five years later than put him under the radar of the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crime Task Force. On Feb. 15, when Myers thought he was arranging a meeting at Northpark Mall and sex with the 14-year-old, he was instead greeted by law enforcement.

Those convicted of committing the same crimes that Myers committed normally receive 10-year sentences, but the government asked for an upward departure for Myers, citing acts he had described to them during a three-hour interview the day he was arrested, including sex with his three underage stepdaughters.

A startling revelation that came out of the interview was the fact that Myers, whose job duties for the Joplin R-8 School District included monitoring student laptops and who was being paid $67,000 per year,admitted he had pornographic photos of 10 Joplin students on his laptop. Authorities were subsequently able to identify four of the students.

During the last statement issued by the school district on the arrest of Myers, Superintendent C. J. Huff stressed that Myers had no access to students. So far, no one from the district has addressed parents' fears that Myers was using the district-provided laptops to spy on the students, and if so, have any actions been taken to make sure that no one can ever do it again.