DES MOINES, IA – A man from Polk County was sentenced last Tuesday (Nov. 10th) in Des Moines, to serve 240 months (20-years) in prison, for receipt of child pornography. 33-year old Robert Joe Hennings, of Des Moines, was also ordered to forfeit the electronic media used in the offense, pay $15,000 in restitution to victims, and pay $100 to the Crime Victims’ Fund. Hennings was also ordered to register as a sex offender after his release.

According to the record made at sentencing, Hennings collected in excess of 550,000 images of child pornography over a three-year period, including material involving sexual assaults on prepubescent minors, including an infant. The sentence was, in part, a reflection of the danger Hennings posed to children, based on the Court’s finding that he engaged in chats with others where he expressed his desire to have sex with boys younger than five years old and said he wanted to purchase a young prostitute under five years of age.

The case was a joint federal-state effort involving both the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Child Exploitation Task Force and the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s “Project Safe Childhood” initiative, which was
started in 2006 as a nation-wide effort to combine law enforcement investigations and prosecutions, community action, and public awareness in order to reduce the incidence of sexual exploitation of children.

Any persons having knowledge of a child being sexually abused are encouraged to call the Iowa Sexual Abuse Hotline at 1-800-284-7821.

DAVENPORT, Iowa — The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports that on Thursday, November 12th, 41-year-old Walkesha Shavon Jamison, of Coralville, was sentenced in Davenport District Court, to fifteen months in prison for Concealment of Events Affecting Benefits.

Following her prison term, Jamison was ordered to serve three years of supervised release, pay $161,627.76 to the Commissioner of Social Security and $31,727.64 to the Iowa City Housing Authority in restitution, as well as pay $100 to the Crime Victims’ Fund.

An investigation into her activities began in 2017 when the Social Security Administration (SSA) learned Jamison obtained employment in 2015, which she failed to report while she was receiving government benefits. The employment information, coupled with a psychiatric analysis, was inconsistent with Jamison’s reports of disability to SSA. An investigation concluded Jamison fraudulently obtained the diagnoses upon which her benefits were premised and SSA officially terminated the benefits in 2018.

Further, Jamison obtained benefits from the Iowa City Housing Authority, which were funded by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Jamison obtained the benefits partially as a result of her fraudulent SSA disability claim and through other false statements. In total, the loss amount to these federal programs attributed to Jamison was $193,355.40.

The matter was investigated by the Social Security Administration. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

Officials with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation are assisting in a death investigation, following an incident in Burlington, Wednesday. On Saturday (today) authorities said Burlington Police responded at around 11-p.m., to a report of shots fired in the 2200 block of S. 10th Street. Upon arrival, Officers located two people inside a residence – a man and a woman – who had been shot.

The 24-year old female died at the scene.  The 26-year old male was transported to the Great River Medical Center in West Burlington, for medical treatment. The names of those individuals were withheld, pending notification of family, and additional details are not being released by authorities at this time.

Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to call the Burlington Area Crime Stoppers at (319)-753-6835, or Burlington Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division, at (319)-753-8375.