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Press Release

Temple Hills Man Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison for Distributing Child Pornography

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Maryland

Greenbelt, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang sentenced Justin Alonza Jefferson, age 22, of Temple Hills, Maryland, today to seven years in prison, followed by 15 years of supervised release, for distribution of child pornography. Judge Chuang ordered that upon his release from prison, Jefferson must register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

Under the law, children who are abused to produce child pornography, and whose images are traded on the internet are entitled to restitution.  Judge Chuang also ordered Jefferson to pay restitution totaling $7,500 to three such identified victims, whose images were among the child pornography Jefferson possessed.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Acting Special Agent in Charge Ivan Arvelo of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); and Colonel William M. Pallozzi, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police.

According to Jefferson’s plea agreement, in December 2012, Jefferson uploaded files depicting children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  On April 5, 2013, a search warrant was executed at Jefferson’s residence and law enforcement seized Jefferson’s laptop computer and an external hard drive, among other items.  Jefferson was interviewed and admitted that he had been collecting child pornography since he was 12 years old and that his laptop and external hard drive contained images and videos of child pornography.  A subsequent review of the laptop and external hard drive revealed approximately 8,000 image files and 800 movie files depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  Jefferson further admitted that he traded child pornography via the internet.  A search warrant was executed for Jefferson’s email account and law enforcement seized numerous emails to and from Jefferson attaching image files of child pornography.

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.justice.gov/psc.  For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "resources" tab on the left of the page.             

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended HSI Baltimore and the Maryland State Police for their work in the investigation, and thanked the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for its assistance.  Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas A. Mitchell and Michael T. Packard, who prosecuted the case.

Updated June 18, 2015

Topic
Project Safe Childhood