DALLAS - Mark Stamps, of Garland, Texas, was sentenced this morning by U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade to 168 months in federal prison on a child pornography conviction, announced Acting U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.
Stamps, 54, pleaded guilty in May 2014 to a felony information charging one count of transporting and shipping child pornography. He has been in custody since his arrest in April 2014.
The investigation began when a detective with the Sherman, Texas, Police Department, identified a computer that appeared to be sharing child pornography. In fact, the detective was able to obtain a list from the shared folder that contained at least 90 files of known or suspected child pornography.
Further investigation revealed that the computer belonged to Stamps, and based on this information, special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) executed a search warrant at Stamps’ residence on April 10, 2014. Special agents located child pornography videos on an external hard drive.
Stamps admitted that at the time of the search, he knowingly had more than 2500 child pornography images and videos on his computer and other media. Some of those images and videos depicted sadistic and/or violent content, and some of the files depicted infants and toddlers.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative, which was launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, and identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/ and click on the tab “resources."
ICE HSI and the Sherman Police Department investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Camille Sparks prosecuted.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
