Camp County man sentenced to 29 years in federal prison for the online sexual exploitation of children

MARSHALL, Texas – A Leesburg man has been sentenced to 29 years in federal prison for child exploitation violations in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs.

 

Wesley Jacob Hearon, 36, pleaded guilty to production of child pornography and was sentenced to 348 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap on September 28, 2026.

 

According to information presented in court, Hearon used various online personas on social media chat platforms to coerce minor victims to engage in sexually explicit conduct, produce visual depictions of such conduct, and transmit them over the internet.

 

This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood 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 www.justice.gov/psc.

 

This case was investigated by the FBI, Texas Department of Public Safety – Criminal Investigations Division, and Palo Alto (California) Police Department and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert Austin Wells and Lucas Machicek.