SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) -- A Summerset woman was convicted of seven federal criminal offenses for sexual exploitation of a minor. Emily Nicole Yeary, 26, was sentenced to a total of 40 years in federal prison. She is charged with several charges, including Enticement to Travel for Illegal Sexual Activity, Travel with Intent to Engage in Illicit Sexual Activity, Possession of Child Pornography, Obstruction of Justice, Tampering with a Witness and Transfer of Obscene Material to a Minor. The sentencing took place on January 3, 2025. Yeary will also pay $700 assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund and $3,000 in restitution to one of her victims and a restitution to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. “This is among the most heinous cases of child exploitation our office has prosecuted,” said U.S. Attorney Alison J. Ramsdell in a press release. “The lengths to which Emily Yeary went to groom and then manipulate these young girls is reprehensible, and the use of these minor victims as pawns in a game of sexual abuse and terror is unforgivable. Yeary earned herself every month of today’s federal sentence. Let us all be grateful for the expertise of DCI’s Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce and the coordinated efforts of law enforcement agencies throughout South Dakota and other jurisdictions. Law enforcement’s thorough investigation exposed Yeary’s criminal activity and allowed the U.S. Attorney’s Office to seek justice in federal court.” Alleged shooter in Milbank nursing home was in training “I commend the State Trooper, the Division of Criminal Investigation, and South Dakota law enforcement for working with law enforcement across state lines to protect a young victim and hold a serious offender accountable. Human trafficking and its young victims remain a national concern that we unfortunately are not immune from in South Dakota,” said South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley in a press release. In July of 2022, Yeary was charged with multiple crimes from her criminal conduct with minors. The multistate investigation revealed that Yeary had exploited multiple victims from multiple states, including Mississippi, Kentucky, Florida and Missouri. On June 25, 2022, Yeary was pulled over for speeding. At the time, Yeary had a 14-year-old female in her vehicle that had been reported missing from Mississippi. This led to her arrest. Days after Yeary was bonded out of jail, she immediately contacted the same minor, spray painted her truck to avoid detection and returned to Mississippi, where Yeary removed the child from her home a second time and took her to Kansas. The investigation revealed that Yeary routinely presented herself to be an underage male named “Riley” and used TikTok and other cell phone apps to obtain access to minor females. Over the course of three years, Yeary traveled to multiple states to meet her victims and convince them to run away with her. Yeary crossed state lines intending to engage in sex with her victims, and then took her victims across state lines with similar intentions. Yeary sexually abused at least one of her victims, using a prosthetic penis, after giving alcohol to the minor. Yeary possessed sexually explicit photos of another minor female from Kentucky, with whom Yeary had an illegal sexual relationship with and to whom Yeary sent sexually explicit photos of a prosthetic penis. Yeary had another illegal relationship with a minor from Missouri, whom Yeary hid from police in a college fraternity house. After Yeary was arrested in Rapid City and while she was in custody at the Pennington County Jail, she attempted to persuade one of her victims not to testify against her and used the same victim to try to persuade the Missouri victim to similarly not cooperate with the prosecution.