Staff writer
A Dodge City woman is expected to spend 25 years in federal prison for a sex crime against a Marion child.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Kansas, Ashley Marie Kelly, 25, Dodge City, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of producing child pornography.
The charge stemmed from an incident in Marion, said Jim Cross, public information officer for U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom.
Kelly pleaded guilty to making a video of herself engaged in a sex act with a child under 5 and uploading the video to the internet, Cross said.
“In her plea, she admitted she used a smartphone to record the act and posted the video to her Google Drive account,” the press release reads. “Google discovered the photographs and sent reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.”
Kelly was arrested in January 2015 and booked into the Marion County jail on suspicion of rape, criminal sodomy and sexual exploitation of a child. Those charges were dismissed in September so stiffer charges could be filed in federal court instead.
On Nov. 26, 2014, Kelly was convicted in Ford County of five counts of sexual exploitation of a child. The Ford County District Court Clerk’s office said Kelly originally faced 23 counts in Ford County. She has not yet been sentenced for the Ford County convictions because she was brought to Marion County before sentencing there.
Kelly’s sentencing on the federal convictions is scheduled for June 1. Both parties have agreed to recommend a sentence of 25 years.