In a 10-minute sentencing hearing today in Lubbock’s United States District Court, Judge Sam Cummings sentenced Malcolm Douglas Crawford of Snyder to 57 months in the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
Crawford also must serve three years of supervised release after serving his prison term. Cummings ordered Crawford to report to the designated prison site, to be determined by the BOP, by 2 p.m. Oct. 6.
Crawford was sentenced after pleading guilty to lying to an FBI agent. He has been free on a personal recognizance bond
Crawford was charged with having a tablet computer containing child pornography in his possession while serving as a substitute teacher at Snyder High School earlier this year.
Crawford, represented by attorney Zollie Steakley of Sweetwater, pleaded guilty on May 12 to the one-count indictment of making a false statement to FBI Special Agent Keith Quigley.
On March 21, Snyder police Sgt. Mike Counts interviewed Crawford concerning an iPad that Crawford owned that reportedly had been in his possession while substitute teaching at Snyder High School. Crawford, who was a fifth grade teacher with Snyder ISD until his retirement in 2012, told Counts that he had an iPad, but had not taken it to school and he would get it and let the officer examine it.
According to court documents, Crawford threw away the iPad that he had at the high school on March 6. He then gave an older iPad to Counts to examine. Both Counts and Quigly determined that the iPad was not the one Crawford had in his pos- session at the high school.
The FBI agent met with Crawford on March 22 to try and determine the location of the iPad Crawford possessed while substitute teaching. Crawford told the agent that he never had an iPad in his possession at the high school.
When the FBI agent showed Crawford a photo of him holding an iPad that he claimed he never had, he told the agent he’d gotten rid of it “several years ago.”