AREA MAN CONVICTED OF POSSESSING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

(CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas) – Donald Earl Marsh,  61, of Corpus Christi, Texas, has been convicted of possessing child pornography after pleading guilty this afternoon before Senior United States District Judge Hayden Head.

Indicted in September, Marsh stipulated to the facts read into the record by the United States that he had previously placed images of child pornography consisting of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct on his shared, work-issued laptop on Aug. 19, 2010, which were discovered by a co-worker. The discovery was reported to the San Patricio County Sheriff’s Office who initiated an investigation and contacted Marsh. Marsh admitted to having an interest in child pornography to sheriff’s deputies. A subsequent search of Marsh’s home in Corpus Christi by the Corpus Christi Police Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement – Homeland Security Investigations led to the discovery of other electronic media storage devices which, through forensic analysis, were found to contain numerous images of child pornography. Many of the images found depicted victims previously identified as real children by the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children.
 
Marsh has been in custody since his arrest on Aug. 23, 2010, pursuant to the filing of a federal criminal complaint and will remain in custody pending his sentencing hearing set for Jan. 12,  2011. Marsh faces a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment to be followed by a possible lifetime of court supervision and the requirement that he register as a sex offender.

This case, prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lance Duke, was 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, 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.

 

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