NEWARK, N.J. - A Wayne, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 78 months in prison for sharing images of child sexual abuse from his home computer, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Manuel Fernandez, 34, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares to one count of an indictment charging him with distributing images of child pornography over the Internet. Judge Linares imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.
According to documents filed in the case and statements made in court:
Fernandez admitted that between March 2011 and January 2012, he was a member of an online peer-to-peer file sharing network. Fernandez also admitted he made images and videos of child pornography available for other members to download from his “shared" folder. On March 24, 2011, an undercover law enforcement agent successfully downloaded multiple images and videos of child sexual abuse from Fernandez’s computer.
On Jan. 25, 2012, federal law enforcement agents executed a search warrant at Fernandez’s residence. The agents recovered a 1-terabyte hard drive and a 250-gigabyte computer tower, both of which contained numerous images and videos of minor children being sexually abused.
As part of his guilty plea, Fernandez agreed to forfeit the computers and computer accessories he used to commit the offense. He will also be required to register as a sex offender.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Linares sentenced Fernandez to serve five years of supervised release.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HIS), under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Kevin Kelly, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rahul Agarwal of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.
Defense counsel: Chris Adams Esq. Holmdel, New Jersey
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
