Carl Junction man who distributed pornography featuring rape, torture of children denied "compassionate release" due to COVID-19

A Carl Junction man who was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2018 after pleading guilty to possessing and distributing child pornography will remain behind bars.

In a ruling issued today, U. S. District Court Judge Brian C. Wines rejected the appeal of Marvin Vern Ellis, 30, for compassionate relief due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wines said Ellis  "failed to show extraordinary and compelling reasons to support his request for compassionate release."

In his motion, which was filed July 20 with Ellis acting his own attorney, Ellis claimed he and other prisoners were not receiving enough soap and personal hygiene supplies and said the "current regime" at his prison were being treated with "cruel and unusual standards" which put them all at risk of contracting COVID-19.

Ellis said if the judge released him, he would live with his parents in Carl Junction and would take online courses in culinary arts and business management and that he hoped to do volunteer work for the Humane Society.

Almost as an afterthought, Ellis included a segment in his report detailing his medical condition where he said he had tested positive for the coronavirus in mid-April, was asymptomatic and was moved into quarantine quarters with 160 other prisoners.

The crimes that put Ellis in prison were described in a detention motion and in the probable cause affidavit filed after his October 2016 arrest.

From the detention motion:

The defendant was a highly sophisticated consumer and distributor of child pornography.

The defendant was the subject of at least three separate child pornography investigations.

There is evidence to indicate that the defendant was actively trading child pornography with other users.

The defendant possessed large collections of children being subjected to extreme acts of sexual violence.

The defendant confessed to receiving and distributing child pornography.

This case involves a minor victim.

In the probable cause affidavit, Joplin Police Department officer Charles Root, working for the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, wrote that Ellis admitted to viewing child pornography during the initial interview with authorities at his home:

Ellis admitted to searching for and viewing child pornography beginning when he was 18 years old. He indicated that his preference is for seven-year-old females.

Ellis told officers about the types of file sharing software he used and said he did not know when the last time he looked at child porn was, but "it might have been last week."

When he was asked what types of child pornography would be found on his computer, Ellis provided complete details:

Ellis responded that his computer contained sexually explicit imagery of children, some as young as infants, engaging in sex acts with other children, as well as with both adult males and females. Ellis also acknowledged that he possessed images of children engaged in sadomasochistic acts.

When the officers examined the computers, they found pictures of children "tied to beds and chairs while being sexually abused," according to the affidavit.