A Shawnee man with previous convictions involving children will serve 15 years in federal prison for four charges related to child sexual abuse material.
On Thursday, David Mark Jones, 35, of Shawnee, was sentenced in the U.S. District Court of Kansas in Kansas City, Kansas, to 180 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography and three counts of distribution of child pornography, according to federal court files.
Jones was previously convicted of sexual exploitation of a child in February 2023, according to Johnson County District Court documents.
As part of his previous sentence, Jones was required to register as a sex offender and was placed under lifetime supervision, which he violated.
Johnson was previously convicted in 2023
In February 2023 in Johnson County District Court, Jones received a suspended sentence of 32 months in favor of three years of probation, a lifetime of post-release supervision, and a requirement to register as a sex offender for life.
The conviction stemmed from several incidents involving Jones possessing child sexual abuse material, including uploading a video to YouTube and image to Twitter in 2019 that both involved minors that triggered an investigation by the Shawnee Police Department.
In 2020, his brother contacted the Overland Park Police Department after finding child sexual abuse material on Jones’ computer, as well his brother’s fiance discovering videos involving minors on his phone.
The reports prompted the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office to file a charge of sexual exploitation of a child, which he pleaded guilty to on July 2022.
Johnson continued to reoffend
In March 2024, Johnson was found to be in possession of multiple electronic devices containing child pornography in the home he shared with his mother in Kansas, according to federal court files.
When questioned by the Kansas Highway Patrol, Jones admitted to them that he violated his probation and sex offender registration requirements by not disclosing an email account and internet-connected cellphones he was actively using, according to court records.
In addition, he admitted to viewing and downloading child sexual abuse material using phone apps he found on the “deep web” using the Overland Park Library’s wifi, which is also a violation of the library’s Internet Use Policy.
In March 2024, Jones was arrested and charged with Failure to Register in Johnson County District Court.
In September of that same year, Jones’ probation was revoked, and federal charges for distribution and possession of child sexual abuse material were filed in federal court.
In October 2025, he pleaded guilty to all four charges.
“This case is an example of why the sex offender registry is so needed,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser in a press release this week. “Because there are people monitoring sex offenders and checking to see that they are compliant with the rules once they are released, Mr. Jones’ crimes were detected, and now Mr. Jones is going back to prison.”
What’s next
In addition to the federal prison sentence, Jones is also ordered to pay $18,000, or $3,000 for each victim, in restitution.
Jones is being held in the Federal Correctional Institution in Leavenworth, Kansas, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
