Carson City Man Sentenced For Child Pornography Crimes

  RENO, Nev. – A man who used a tiny, hidden video recorder to make over 200 sexually explicit video tape recordings of two female victims who were taking showers and using the restroom at his home in Carson City, Nev., was sentenced today to 19 years in prison, announced Daniel G. Bogden, United States Attorney for the District of Nevada.
           
            Marcus Gabriel Henderson, 34, who pleaded guilty in January to one count attempted production of child pornography and one count of transportation of child pornography, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Larry R. Hicks.  Henderson was also placed on lifetime supervised release and must register as a convicted sex offender.   

            “The sharing of child pornography over the internet results in repeated re-victimization and can negatively affect a victim for the rest of his or her life,” said U.S. Attorney Bogden.  “The persons who produce these images and trade them with other persons deserve significant sentences of imprisonment.”

According to the court records, on July 31, 2013, a federal search warrant was executed at Henderson’s residence after he was identified as a target in an undercover child pornography investigation.  During the execution of the warrant, one of the investigators located a device in a bathroom which appeared to be an AC adaptor.  The adaptor was actually a covert video recording device containing a pinhole camera and media card.  A forensic examination of the media card revealed that it contained approximately 277 video clips, each about one minute in length, which appeared to have been taken in the toilet and shower areas of one or more bathrooms.  The camera had been positioned to capture nude images of two different female victims, one of whom was 13 years old at the time.  Henderson admitted that he created the videos to elicit a sexual response from the viewer of the videos and that he intended to distribute them to internet users in exchange for something of value. After recording some of the video clips, Henderson traveled from Nevada to South Dakota and distributed or sent via email some of the videos he produced.  In addition to the hidden camera, investigators recovered during the search, an additional 1200 images and 10 videos of child pornography from computers and digital devices that Henderson used. Some of the files depicted prepubescent children and sadistic and masochistic conduct.

“For most people, criminal acts against children are impossible to comprehend,” said Kyle Burns, resident agent in charge of HSI Reno. “For a child who has been tricked and sexually exploited by someone they trusted, the physical and emotional scars will be with them forever. As this sentence makes unmistakably clear, child sex predators will be caught, prosecuted, and meted the justice they deserve for their despicable actions.”

The case was investigated by HSI and the Northern Nevada Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Carla B. Higginbotham. 

The 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."