U.S. District Judge Camela C. Theeler has sentenced a Box Elder, South Dakota, man convicted of Receipt of Child Pornography. The sentencing took place on March 9, 2026.
David Derby, 29, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $190 in restitution and $100 in special assessments to the Federal Crime Victims Fund. Forfeiture was also ordered.
Derby was indicted for the charge by a federal grand jury in September 2025. He pleaded guilty on November 12, 2025.
Between September 2024 and April 8, 2025, Derby used the internet-based application Kik and his Motorola cellular phone and Samsung tablet computer to receive video files containing sexually explicit visual depictions of minors into his Kik account. Law enforcement officers located video files of child pornography in Derby’s Kik account. One of the videos was of a juvenile male being sexually assaulted.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.
This case was investigated by the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Rapid City Police Department, and the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Knox and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn N. Rich prosecuted the case.
Derby was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
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