United States Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña
Northern District of Texas

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2011
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/txn/

FORT WORTH MAN SENTENCED TO NEARLY 12 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON
FOR POSSESSING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

FORT WORTH, Texas — At a sentencing hearing held this morning in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, U.S. District Judge John McBryde departed upward from the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and sentenced Louis E. Gray, 40, to 141 months in federal prison following his guilty plea in July 2011 to one count of possessing child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas. In addition, Judge McBryde ordered that Gray serve a lifetime of supervised release. Gray has been in custody since July 6, 2011, when law enforcement executed a search warrant at his residence in Fort Worth. Sentencing is set for November 10, 2011, before Judge McBryde.

According to documents filed in the case, when special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) executed a search warrant at Gray’s residence, where he resided alone, they located two working computers and 17 hard drives. A forensic examination of two of those hard drives has shown they contain approximately 2500 images 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 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

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex C. Lewis prosecuted the case.

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