Derrick Stephen Walker, 44, Minot, is now scheduled to go to trial on Jan. 4, 2021 in U.S. District Court in Bismarck on six counts of sexual exploitation of a child. His trial had been postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

His co-defendant, Katie Heidinger, 31, of Velva, accepted a plea deal on six charges of sexual exploitation of a child and is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 23. According to court documents, the plea deal would call for Heidinger to serve 30 years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised probation.

Both Heidinger and Walker had originally been charged in state court with related charges before they were indicted in federal court. Heidinger had been accused of sexually abusing three small children in McHenry County, taking video recordings and still images of the abuse with her cell phone, and sending the images to Walker via SnapChat between Aug. 2019 and Monday, Jan. 6.

Katrina Louise Huston, 33, of Ryder, had allegedly participated in a group discussion on Snapchat in October 2019 with Walker and Heidinger. The online chat group reportedly exchanged images and videos containing child pornography. Huston had allegedly sent Walker an illegal image. Huston has been charged in district court in Minot with Class A felony gross sexual imposition. A pretrial conference in Huston’s case is scheduled for Sept. 30 in court before Judge Gary Lee.