Colorado man pleads guilty to producing child pornography with babies just a few weeks old

DENVER — A Colorado man pleaded guilty last week to producing child pornography, with the produced videos and images involving children who were as young as 7 weeks old.

This guilty plea was announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Colorado, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Jamie Sailas, 30, of Metro Denver, pleaded guilty Jan. 15, 2016 to producing child pornography before U.S. District Court Judge William J. Martinez. Sailas is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Martinez April 28. According to the stipulated facts contained in the defendant’s plea agreement, Sailas came to law enforcement attention when an HSI special agent working in Washington, DC, conducted a proactive undercover investigation upon an Internet website that hosted chat rooms. Users of these chat rooms have the ability to upload content to the chat room in the form of pictures and video.

While conducting this investigation, the HSI special agent came across a link to a video that depicted an adult male engaging in intercourse with a minor female. This investigation led the special agent to specific subscriber information which had been submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) by the Internet Service Provider. The link was associated with an online storage account that belonged to Jamie Sailas, who at the time resided in Brighton, Colorado.

There were nearly 2,900 uploaded file names associated with Sailas’s online storage account, consistent with file names of videos containing child pornography. An email account associated with the online storage account was also determined to belong to Sailas.

During the investigation, the local HSI special agent learned that two additional NCMEC reports had been generated regarding Sailas, one which involved the email address associated with the online storage account.

A legal search of the defendant’s email account reflected that Sailas used the account to send or receive about 5,500 images and 240 videos of child pornography. The material included minors as young as infants, with a large majority of content depicting prepubescent minor females.

It was ultimately determined that in addition to living in Brighton, the defendant worked at Game Trader in Brighton. Search warrants were executed for Sailas’s home, workplace and vehicle in November 2014. Numerous electronic devices belonging to Sailas were recovered during the execution of the search warrants.

During the forensic examination of the electronic devices recovered during the search warrants, numerous images and videos depicting child pornography were recovered, including an image of child pornography that was recovered from one of Sailas’s cell phones. The image of child pornography depicted a penis in the mouth of an approximately 4-week-old infant. The image was taken by Sailas. The defendant had access to the infant because he was a friend of the child’s mother.

Sailas pleaded guilty to one count of producing child pornography, which carries a penalty of not less than 15 years, and up to 30 years in federal prison, and up to a $250,000 fine.

Jamie Sailas was investigated by HSI with assistance from the Brighton Police Department. Sailas was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alecia Riewerts, District of Colorado.

This investigation was conducted under HSI’s Operation Predator, an international initiative to protect children from sexual predators. Since the launch of Operation Predator in 2003, HSI has arrested more than 14,000 individuals for crimes against children, including the production and distribution of online child pornography, traveling overseas for sex with minors, and sex trafficking of children. In fiscal year 2015, nearly 2,400 individuals were arrested by HSI special agents under this initiative and more than 1,000 victims identified or rescued.

HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free Tip Line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or by completing its online tip form. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators. From outside the U.S. and Canada, callers should dial 802-872-6199. Hearing impaired users can call TTY 802-872-6196.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, via its toll-free 24-hour hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST.

For additional information about wanted suspected child predators, download HSI’s Operation Predator smartphone app or visit the online suspect alerts page.