Southeast Texas man sentenced to more than 9 years in prison for possessing child pornography

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A Rockport, Texas man was sentenced to 110 months in prison for possessing child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson, Southern District of Texas, on Thursday. The investigation was conducted by U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Corpus Christi Police Department's (CCPD) Internet Crimes against Children Task Force (ICAC).

Nicholas Brown, 25, was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack, which will be followed by a life-year-term of supervised released. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Brown pleaded guilty Jan. 9, admitting he possessed images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Brown previously admitted he possessed more than 100 videos of child pornography. Those videos were discovered during an investigation being conducted by the United States Marshals Service (USMS) into the whereabouts of a sex offender registration and notification act violator with whom Brown had been residing.

Brown was contacted in regards to that investigation and consented to a search of computers in his residence; the computers were turned over to the CCPD-ICAC. A forensic examination of the computers revealed the presence of child pornography. HSI special agents conducted an investigation in partnership with CCPD-ICAC regarding the material discovered, concluding that Brown was responsible for the child pornography. Brown admitted to both constructing and being the sole user of the computer found to contain the child pornography. Many of the images and videos found therein contain victims previously identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Brown will remain in federal custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined on the near future.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lance Duke, Southern District of Texas, prosecuted the case.

This investigation is part of HSI's Operation Predator, a nationwide initiative to identify, investigate and arrest those who sexually exploit children, and the Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood, which marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children using the Internet.

As part of Operation Predator, HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-347-2423 or via its online tip form. Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.

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