Anthony Helsel, 31, withdrew his not guilty plea and pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of children.
Judge David P. Rush ordered a pre-sentence investigation. Sentencing will be scheduled at a later date.
Helsel is the second person to plead guilty in connection with the same case. Former Joplin police offier Gary McKinney pleaded guilty August 12 and is awaiting sentencing.
The Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force were led to McKinney following their investigation and subsequent arrest of Helsel.
The probable cause affidavit detailed McKinney and Helsel's alleged crimes: Helsel admitted to investigating officers that he had sent videos of himself with a four-year-old girl to others, including McKinney.
When law enforcement arrived at Helsel's home, he was talking to McKinney, who was going by the name of "Jim Beam" on the KIK application, the affidavit said.
Helsel said McKinney sent him a $30 money gram asking for photos of the four-year-old's feet. He also asked for shoes and socks that had been worn by the girl, but he did not want anything that had been laundered.
In exchange for that, McKinney allegedly offered Helsel an opportunity for a sexual encounter with an adult woman. When McKinney and the woman arrived at Helsel's home, the woman declined to have sex with him, the affidavit said.
Helsel gave law enforcement officers permission to assume his KIK identity and began "engaging in chats with Jim Beam." An attempt to arrange a meeting with McKinney that evening was unsuccessful.
A forensic examination of Helsel's phone showed numerous conversations between Helfel and McKinney, according to the affidavit. On October 2, Helsel sent McKinney several files, with two including child pornography.
One included an approximately five-year-old girl engaged in a sex act with a boy, who appeared to be about nine years old.
Joplin Police conducted a search warrant at McKinney's home on South Byers Avenue Wednesday. A forensic examination of McKinney's phone showed a chat dated August 26:
During the chat, the two talked about setting up or finding groups with young children live streaming sexual acts. McKinney talked about having "a few women with little girls." (The other man) asked if they would "live show" and McKinney replied , "Yeah they (have intercourse with) their kids."McKinney and other man exchanged child pornography images, including photos of a six-year-old, a seven-year-old an "infant or toddler" whose genital area was being graphically displayed by an adult.
The search of the phone uncovered other exchanges of child pornography and discussion about children engaged in sexual activity, according to the probable cause affidavit.
FBI investigators interviewed the woman McKinney allegedly tried to set up with Helsel and were told McKinney liked her to have sex with men, including an act that involved her feet and then give him the details.
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