A federal judge sentenced a Prattville man and a Shelby County woman Tuesday on child exploitation charges.Northern District of Alabama United States Attorney Jay E. Town said the judge sentenced Kenneth Earl Hooks, 36, to 120 years and two life sentences to run consecutively. Sarah Pauline Morris, 28, was sentenced to 197 months for producing child pornography. Hooks pled guilty to the charges in February 2019 and also to an additional charge of transporting a minor for sexual purposes.“This sentence very clearly reflects the seriousness of these child predator’s disgusting crimes,” Town said.“The sentencing of Hooks and Morris brings justice to two serial offenders who preyed on societies most vulnerable,” said HSI Special Agent in Charge Nick S. Annan. "Their crime spree included depraved acts of abuse and violence and would have undoubtedly continued without the work of the agents involved in this investigation."The charges originated from numerous criminal events that occurred in the Northern District of Alabama and in the Middle District of Alabama. Police in California found Hooks and Morris living in a desert area on the southern tip of the state after locating a red Mitsubishi Montero with an Alabama license plate there, according to a May 4, 2018, federal criminal complaint and arrest affidavit issued for Hooks in the Northern District of Alabama. According to the affidavit, the red Mitsubishi was registered to Morris and police were searching for it because security cameras at a Walmart in Brawley, California, caught her driving it on March 30, 2018, when security officers at the store reported Morris attempting to film two young girls in a bathroom stall.Further investigation revealed that child pornographic images were discovered on a laptop that had been subjected to forensic examination by law enforcement officers in Imperial County, California. According to court documents, agents from the Department of Homeland Security in Birmingham received these images which depicted sexual exploitation of 2 prepubescent children and a teenage female under the age of 18 by Hooks in Alabama. HSI Birmingham investigated the case, along with the assistance of HSI Calexico, CA; HSI Las Cruces, NM; HSI El Paso, TX; Brawley Police Department, CA; Imperial County California District Attorney’s Office; U.S. Marshals Service Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force, El Centro Division, CA; Chilton County Alabama Sheriff’s Office, Alabaster Police Department, AL, which Assistant United States Attorney R. Leann White, Northern District of Alabama and Assistant United States Attorneys Hollie Reed and Russell Duraski, Middle District of Alabama prosecuted.

A federal judge sentenced a Prattville man and a Shelby County woman Tuesday on child exploitation charges.

Northern District of Alabama United States Attorney Jay E. Town said the judge sentenced Kenneth Earl Hooks, 36, to 120 years and two life sentences to run consecutively. Sarah Pauline Morris, 28, was sentenced to 197 months for producing child pornography.


Hooks pled guilty to the charges in February 2019 and also to an additional charge of transporting a minor for sexual purposes.

“This sentence very clearly reflects the seriousness of these child predator’s disgusting crimes,” Town said.

“The sentencing of Hooks and Morris brings justice to two serial offenders who preyed on societies most vulnerable,” said HSI Special Agent in Charge Nick S. Annan. "Their crime spree included depraved acts of abuse and violence and would have undoubtedly continued without the work of the agents involved in this investigation."

The charges originated from numerous criminal events that occurred in the Northern District of Alabama and in the Middle District of Alabama.

Police in California found Hooks and Morris living in a desert area on the southern tip of the state after locating a red Mitsubishi Montero with an Alabama license plate there, according to a May 4, 2018, federal criminal complaint and arrest affidavit issued for Hooks in the Northern District of Alabama.

According to the affidavit, the red Mitsubishi was registered to Morris and police were searching for it because security cameras at a Walmart in Brawley, California, caught her driving it on March 30, 2018, when security officers at the store reported Morris attempting to film two young girls in a bathroom stall.

Further investigation revealed that child pornographic images were discovered on a laptop that had been subjected to forensic examination by law enforcement officers in Imperial County, California.

According to court documents, agents from the Department of Homeland Security in Birmingham received these images which depicted sexual exploitation of 2 prepubescent children and a teenage female under the age of 18 by Hooks in Alabama.

HSI Birmingham investigated the case, along with the assistance of HSI Calexico, CA; HSI Las Cruces, NM; HSI El Paso, TX; Brawley Police Department, CA; Imperial County California District Attorney’s Office; U.S. Marshals Service Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force, El Centro Division, CA; Chilton County Alabama Sheriff’s Office, Alabaster Police Department, AL, which Assistant United States Attorney R. Leann White, Northern District of Alabama and Assistant United States Attorneys Hollie Reed and Russell Duraski, Middle District of Alabama prosecuted.