A man who illegally possessed child pornography was sentenced Feb. 24, 2022, to 4 years in federal prison.
Johnny E. Gutierrez, 21, from Melvin, Iowa, received the prison term after an April 21, 2021, guilty plea to two counts of possession of child pornography.
Gutierrez admitted that between February 2016 and November 2019, he possessed visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, including depictions involving a minor who had not attained 12 years of age. Gutierrez further admitted to distributing child pornography to other individuals. As a result of the investigation, officers recovered approximately 51 images and 26 videos of child pornography from Gutierrez’s computer hard drive and approximately 38 images of child pornography from his cell phone.
Gutierrez was sentenced in Sioux City by United States District Court Chief Judge Leonard T. Strand. Gutierrez was sentenced to 48 months’ imprisonment and must pay a total of $3,000 in restitution. He must also serve a 5-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system. Gutierrez is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources."
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mikala Steenholdt and Patrick T. Greenwood and investigated by Homeland Security Investigation.
Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
The case file number is 20-4073. Follow us on Twitter @USAO_NDIA.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
