Sacramento County man sentenced for sexual exploitation of a child, prosecutors say
A judge on Monday sentenced a Sacramento County man to 20 years in federal prison for using hidden cameras to secretly record nude images of a child and sharing those images online, prosecutors said.
Ryan Kent Wheeler, 39, of Citrus Heights was convicted of sexual exploitation of a child, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento.
Along with the prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller ordered Wheeler to serve 15 years of parole once he’s released from prison and pay $35,000 in restitution.
Federal prosecutors said Wheeler set up hidden cameras in a house he shared with the victim to capture nude images of the child from November 2019 to February 2020.
Wheeler made screen-captured still images from video files and shared those images in a chat group on the Kik social media app, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Agents served a search warrant and recovered the hidden cameras and digital devices that stored the files, along with other devices.
This case was the result of an investigation by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and the Placer County District Attorney’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Yang prosecuted the case against Wheeler.
This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 12:11 PM.
