TOPEKA – A Kansas man was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in prison for his involvement in manufacturing child sexual abuse materials.
According to court documents, Taylor Mullen, 33, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit sexual exploitation of a child – production of child pornography, according to the United State's Attorney.
Mullen is the fourth person sentenced in a case involving two separate conspiracies both led by Joel Womochil, 39, the former chief of police in the Marion County community of Burns.
Womochil pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit sexual exploitation of a child – production of child pornography. In March, he was sentenced to 720 months in prison.
In 2021, Mullen and his girlfriend Jessica Quave, 38, created videos of themselves engaging in sexually explicit behavior with a child under six years old and sent the videos to Womochil.
Quave pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sexual exploitation of a child - production of child pornography. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Another conspiracy in 2019 took place between Womochil and Denise Renee Sandman, 40, of Indiana. After meeting Womochil online, Sandmann agreed to create images of a child under the age
of five engaged in sexually explicit conduct and send the images to Womochil, which he saved to his hard drive.
Sandmann pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit sexual exploitation of a child – production of child pornography and one count of sexual exploitation of a child – production of child pornography. She was sentenced to 720 months in prison.
“We are grateful to the Kansas Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and Homeland Security
Investigations for securing the overwhelming evidence against these child predators which led to guilty pleas and ultimately long prison sentences for their crimes,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Duston Slinkard.
The Butler County Sheriff’s Office, Kansas Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) investigated the case.