A St. Louis County woman, Raven Ainesis Pointer, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for producing child sexual abuse material involving a toddler. The sentencing was delivered by U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel.
Pointer, aged 27, was also ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution and will be under supervised release for life following her imprisonment. In October, she pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography at the U.S. District Court in St. Louis.
According to court documents, Pointer coerced a two-year-old victim into engaging in sexual conduct in 2022 and used her phone to create videos containing child sexual abuse material. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany Becker noted that Pointer recorded the abuse on six occasions and shared it with others for "perverse sexual" entertainment.
Mark Zito, Special Agent in Charge of ICE Homeland Security Investigations Kansas City, commented on the case: “The production and sharing of child sexual abuse material is an appalling betrayal of human decency... Crimes like this are not only horrific but they are also unforgivable.” He emphasized the commitment to using all available resources to stop such predators.
The investigation commenced in August 2023 in Montgomery, Alabama after Homeland Security Investigations agents discovered that a man distributing child sexual abuse material had received videos from Pointer involving the toddler victim. This led investigators to locate Pointer in St. Louis.
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the St. Louis County Police Department as part of Project Safe Childhood—an initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 aimed at combating child exploitation and abuse.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.justice.gov/psc.