An Evansville man on Wednesday was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for producing child pornography, according to Wyoming federal court sentencing minutes.

James Wayne Luce heard the sentence during an hour-long hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Alan Johnson.

Besides the prison term, Johnson ordered Luce to be placed on supervised probation for 12 years after his release from prison, register as a sex offender, have no contact with victims, and comply with other requirements. The judge also recommended that Luce participate in a 500-hour residential drug abuse program, according to the sentencing minutes.

Luce, who was 28 at the time of his arrest in December 2020, initially wanted a trial.

But on Feb. 1 he pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography. A count of possession of child pornography was dismissed at the sentencing on the recommendation of the prosecution.

The case began in the fall of 2020 when the Casper Police Department sent a report about a child pornography investigation to an agent with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations.

The latter agency works with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation and the FBI in a cooperative program called the Wyoming Internet Crimes Against Children task force.

The police report said Luce in September had produced an image of child pornography and transmitted it to Google through an account of his, according to the agent's affidavit accompanying the criminal complaint.

In November a police officer gave the agent a phone found in a car by a reporting party believed to belong to Luce. At the time, Luce lived on Lathrop Road in Evansville.

Police obtained a search warrant for the phone, which had data including 51 images and three video files of child pornography.

Investigators searched Luce's email accounts and determined his appearance from other images including a selfie of him holding a handgun.

One image found on the phone showed a prepubescent female and what appeared to be Luce's hand.

Luce was in Riverton when the images were recorded.

On Dec. 20, 2020, law enforcement arrested Luce and booked him into the Natrona County Detention Center. He remained in custody since his arrest.

The government regards child pornography as a crime of violence because it involves brutal assaults on very young children who cannot give consent to sexual activity.

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