PEORIA, Ill. - Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Shadid today ordered David C. Turner, 43, of Pekin, Ill., to serve 20 years (240 months) in federal prison for child pornography crimes. Turner pled guilty to receiving and possessing child pornography in December 2016 and January 2017, six months after serving 21 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for offenses including child pornography, aggravated kidnapping and solicitation for murder.
Turner has remained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service since he was arrested on Jan. 11, 2017, when he was charged in a criminal complaint. On Feb. 16, Turner pled guilty to the offenses. Upon his release from incarceration, Turner was ordered to remain on supervised release for 20 years and to register as a sex offender.
According to court documents, in December 2016, law enforcement agents identified two IP addresses from a computer, subsequently identified as Turner’s, which were using a peer-to-peer file sharing program to download and share files containing child pornography. Based on this information, U.S. Secret Service agents obtained and executed a search warrant for a residence in the 2100 block of Court St., in Pekin, on Jan. 11, 2017. At the residence, agents identified Turner and seized numerous items of computer equipment belonging to Turner. A forensic examination of the seized items showed they contained 481 images and 84 videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald L. Hanna prosecuted the case. The charges were the result of an investigation by the U.S. Secret Service, Springfield Electronic Crimes Unit, which includes the Peoria County Sheriff’s Department.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
