Jeffery W. Larson Sentenced In U.S. District Court

The United States Attorney's Office announced that during a federal court session in Billings, on January 10, 2013, before Chief U.S. District Judge Richard F. Cebull, JEFFERY W. LARSON, a 46-year-old resident of Billings, was sentenced to a term of:

• Prison: 84 months

• Special Assessment: $100.00

• Restitution: $2,000.00

• Supervised Release: 10 years

LARSON was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to receipt of child pornography.

In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marcia K. Hurd, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:

Law enforcement officers were investigating allegations of child pornography access by users utilizing the peer-to-peer file sharing network Gigatribe. One investigation involved a person in Billings who had child pornography available to share via the file sharing program. An undercover agent downloaded a number of child pornography files from that person in early January 2012. A search warrant was obtained for the residence and served on January 18, 2012.

LARSON was one of the occupants of the residence. When questioned, LARSON admitted that he used the peer-to-peer file sharing program Gigatribe to receive and possess thousands of child pornography videos and images. He detailed the search terms he used to find child pornography, how he saved it to various computers and other equipment, and how he had been doing so for a lengthy period of time.

Agents seized various computer equipment at LARSON's residence. A forensic examination revealed thousands of images and movies of child pornography that LARSON had received via the Internet for years and continuing until the equipment was seized. LARSON possessed images and movies of children clearly prepubescent and children engaged in sadistic or masochistic abuse or other depictions of violence.

Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that LARSON will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, LARSON does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.

The investigation was conducted by a cooperative effort between the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Billings Police Department, and the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.