Bryant Man Sentenced to 30 Years in Federal Prison for Production of Child Pornography

LITTLE ROCK-Tyler Dane Wooten will spend 360 months in federal prison for production of child pornography. Jonathan D. Ross, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, announced the sentence, which was handed down today by United States District Judge Lee P. Rudofsky.

On October 9, 2024, Wooten, 36, of Bryant, was indicted by a federal grand jury in a 12-count Superseding Indictment on six counts of distribution of child pornography, one count of production of child pornography, two counts of distribution and attempted distribution of child pornography, two counts of receipt and attempted receipt of child pornography, and one count of possession of child pornography. Judge Rudofsky also sentenced Wooten to a lifetime of supervised release and ordered him to pay $81,000 in restitution. There is no parole in the federal system.

In April 2024, an FBI Online Covert Employee (OCE), using an online platform, began chatting with a user whose display name was "Bad Daddy." An investigation identified "Bad Daddy" as the defendant, Wooten. The OCE and Wooten belonged to a chat group that that was devoted to the exchange of child pornography and videos. A further investigation revealed that on several occasions in April through June 2024, Wooten and other members of the group exchanged child pornography that contained videos depicting adults performing sex acts on children, including toddlers and infants.

On April 24, 2024, Wooten and the OCE were in a private conversation and Wooten stated he previously had "100+ gigs of stuff," meaning child pornography. Wooten stated to the OCE that he had a "guilty conscience" and a "paranoid episode" and deleted the child pornography but was "just starting back into collecting" and was "…in search of harder and hurtcore baby and toddler stuff" because he "loves good toddler baby stuff."

A review of Wooten's online account revealed that he was chatting with another user who was sexually abusing a child at Wooten's direction and the user filmed the abuse.

On July 30, 2024, Wooten was arrested and at the time of his arrest, law enforcement officers discovered 3,945 videos of child pornography on his devices.

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 and led by the U.S. Attorney's Offices and the Criminal Divisions Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), it marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc. Parents are encouraged to always monitor your children's online activity.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kristin Bryant.

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