United States Attorney David Capp

Northern District of Indiana

5400 Federal Plaza, Suite 1500

Hammond, Indiana  46320

Hammond                                                      South Bend                                           Fort Wayne
 
 

 


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                         CONTACT: Mary Hatton

November 9, 2012                                                                              PHONE: (219) 937-5603

www.usdoj.gov/usao/inn/                                                                                                  FAX (219) 852-2770

 

 

WEEK IN REVIEW – HAMMOND

 

 

                Hammond, Indiana - The United States Attorney’s Office announced the following activity in Federal Court:

 

PLEAS:

 

Ø  James Harris, 22, of Merrillville, Indiana, pled guilty before Senior District Judge James Moody to the felony offense of being an unlawful drug user in possession of firearms and ammunition.  These charges were filed as a result of an investigation by the by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Merrillville Police Department.  This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dean Lanter.

 

Ø  Lori Lee Lloyd, 37, of East Chicago, Indiana, pled guilty before Chief Judge Philip Simon to the felony offense of dealing in counterfeit obligations and securities.  Sentencing has been set for 2/21/13.  These charges were filed as a result of an investigation by the United States Secret Service.  This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Randall Stewart.

 

If convicted in court, any specific sentence to be imposed will be determined by the judge after a consideration of federal sentencing statutes and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

  

DISPOSITIONS:

 

Ø  Krystal Lee, 33, of Clinton, Indiana, was sentenced by Chief Judge Philip Simon to 36 months imprisonment and 2 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of possession of pseudoephedrine to be used to manufacture methamphetamine.  This case was the result of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Indiana State Police and the Porter County Sheriff’s Office.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David Nozick.

 

Ø  Hector Manuel Tovalin, Jr., 36, of Hammond, Indiana, was sentenced by Senior District Judge James Moody to 78 months imprisonment and 10 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to an Information charging him with possession of child pornography.  According to the Complaint affidavit filed in this case, law enforcement, using a computer connected to the Internet, launched a publicly available P2P file sharing program from the Cyber Crime Task Force, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma.   During this and subsequent undercover sessions, agents fully downloaded many image files containing child pornography from a user using an internet address later identified as belonging to Tovalin.  A search warrant executed at Tovalin’s residence located computer equipment containing images constituting child pornography.  This case resulted from an investigation by members of the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Michigan City Police Department.  This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jill Koster.

 

Ø  Scott Adkins, 69, of Gary, Indiana, was sentenced by Chief Judge Philip Simon on three felony convictions in two separate federal prosecutions.  Adkins was sentenced to 210 months imprisonment and 15 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of receipt of child pornography.  Adkins was also sentenced to 90 months of imprisonment and 4 years of supervised release after being found guilty at trial in the second case of possession with the intent to distribute 100 or more grams of heroin and possession of a firearm as a convicted felon.  78 months of this sentence is to run concurrently to the 210 months, and 12 months will run consecutively, for a total of 220 months imprisonment.  According to the sentencing memorandums filed by the government in these cases, a parcel addressed to Nathaniel Jordan, a defendant in the drug case, was found to contain heroin during a pre-arrival inspection at a UPS hub in Louisville, Kentucky.  The parcel was sent via a controlled delivery by a federal agent to the addressee.   Law enforcement entered the residence pursuant to a search warrant and found Adkins and Jordan with the opened parcel containing heroin.  During the search, officers found two firearms and computer equipment belonging to Adkins which contained 22 videos.  Several of those videos were lengthy montages featuring the abuse of many different children and in total those videos span 260 minutes, or 4.3 hours.  This case was the result of an investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jill Koster and Jennifer Chang-Adiga.

 

The Tovalin and Adkins cases were 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 United States 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.