Evansville Repeat Offender Dug Phone From Trash to Get 15-Year Sentence

A Evansville man who was already under federal supervision for a prior child exploitation conviction has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison after investigators say he dug an unapproved cell phone out of a workplace trash can, hid it in his dresser, and used it to distribute child sexual abuse material. Michael K. Wallace received the sentence for offenses that took place throughout 2025, when he used the social media app Kik to receive and distribute the material from his Evansville residence.

According to the Evansville Courier & Press, Wallace admitted to federal investigators that he retrieved the discarded phone and used a VPN from a nearby home to access Kik, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Indiana. The arrangement allowed him to access Kik from a nearby home, according to the Department of Justice.

U.S. District Judge Matthew P. Brookman imposed the 15-year prison term along with 20 years of supervised release once Wallace completes his sentence. The court also ordered Wallace to pay $3,000 in restitution for each identifiable child victim.

A Rapid Return to Offending

Wallace's latest case follows an August 2012 conviction for felony possession and receipt of sexually explicit material involving minors. He was released from federal prison in February 2025, but federal probation officers confronted him just eight months later, on October 17, 2025, after reports surfaced that he had been distributing illegal video, per the Department of Justice.

U.S. Attorney Tom Wheeler said Wallace's conduct was shocking and described Wallace as a predator. The case was prosecuted under Project Safe Childhood, a long-running Department of Justice initiative.

Part of a Broader Pattern in Evansville

Wallace's prosecution is the latest in a string of federal child exploitation cases tied to Evansville and involving the Kik platform. In August 2025, another registered sex offender from the city, 48-year-old Casey Lee Smith, was sentenced to 17.5 years after uploading child sexual abuse material to Kik and failing to register the account with authorities, as Hoodline previously reported.

Just months after that, in November 2025, Evansville resident Samuel Kirkwood received a 15-year federal prison sentence for producing and possessing child sexual abuse material. The Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force took over Wallace's investigation.

The surge in prosecutions underscores the scale of the problem federal task forces are now confronting across Indiana.