Inmate Given New Term Over Sex Photo of Girl

A prison inmate who corresponded with an El Monte woman about molesting her 11-year-old daughter was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday for receiving a sexually explicit photograph of the girl.

Bobby J. Cornelius, already serving a 15-year term in Florida for molesting his own 6-year-old daughter, pleaded guilty to a child pornography charge after prison officials found the picture in a routine mail inspection.

Pamela Smith, 33, who had been corresponding with Cornelius through a pen pal program, has pleaded guilty to taking the photograph and several others that were found at her home, Assistant U.S. Atty. Bonnie S. Klapper said.

According to Klapper, Smith began writing to Cornelius, 38, as part of a correspondence program known as “Prison Missions.”

“The original letters were religious in content. He’d write to her about his belief in God, and slowly but surely the letters became more and more sexual,” Klapper said.

At one point, Cornelius asked Smith to bring her 11-year-old daughter to the prison in order for him to molest her, and Smith agreed to take the child to the prison, Klapper said.

However, prison officials intercepted the photograph before any visits could take place, she said.

Smith is undergoing psychiatric evaluation and is scheduled to be sentenced within the next few weeks.

Cornelius, sentenced under the federal Child Protection Act by U.S. District Judge Consuelo Marshall, is scheduled to begin serving the federal sentence after completing his sentence on the earlier molestation charge.