Sacramento Man Convicted for Possession and Receipt
of Child Pornography

SACRAMENTO—United States Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced today that KEVIN GIFFORD, 28, of Sacramento, was convicted on Friday, February 22, 2008, of two counts of possession of child pornography and receipt of child pornography in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2252(a)(4)(B) and 2252(a)(2). The guilty verdict was returned by a federal jury in Sacramento after a four-day trial before United States District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton.

This case is the product of an extensive joint investigation by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

According to Assistant United States Attorneys Carolyn Delaney and Kyle Reardon, who prosecuted the case, the evidence introduced at trial showed that GIFFORD possessed on his home computer over 200 videos and 160 digital photographs of child pornography. Each of the videos and photographs contained images of children under the age of 18 engaged in sexually explicit conduct, including images of pre-pubescent girls being raped and sodomized by adult males, as well as scenes of bondage and sadomasochism. The defendant started acquiring these videos and photographs in late 2005 through online file-sharing networks such as WinMX and LimeWire, possessing and viewing them on his home computer until it was seized by law enforcement in January 2006.

The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Karlton at a future date following the completion of a presentence report by the United States Probation Office.

The maximum statutory penalty for a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(4)(B) is 10 years. A violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(2) requires a five-year mandatory minimum sentence; the maximum sentence under 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(2) is 20 years. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables and any applicable statutory sentencing factors.

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