Albuquerque Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Child Pornography Charge

ALBUQUERQUE – Carl Weatherman, 32, of Albuquerque, N.M., pled guilty this morning to receipt of a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct under a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. 

Weatherman was arrested on federal child pornography charges on April 8, 2014, based on a criminal complaint alleging receipt and possession of child pornography charges.  According to the criminal complaint, the investigation into Weatherman was initiated by the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) in Dec. 2013, when a minor child reported seeing Weatherman watch child pornography and that Weatherman showed child pornography to the minor child.  Between Dec. 2013 and Feb. 2014, the BCSO executed search warrants at Weatherman’s residence which authorized them to seize, among other things, computers, computer-related media and cellphones.  Items seized by the BCSO during the searches were submitted for forensic examination by the New Mexico Regional Forensic Laboratory, and were found to contain images and videos consistent with child pornography.

Weatherman was indicted on May 7, 2014, and charged with one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

During today’s proceedings, Weatherman entered a guilty plea to Count 1 of the indictment, charging him with receipt of child pornography.  In his plea agreement, Weatherman admitted that between Aug. 2013 and Dec. 2013, he knowingly received child pornography on his computer.

Weatherman has been in federal custody since his arrest and remains detained pending his sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled.  At sentencing, Weatherman faces imprisonment for a period not less than five years and not more than 20 years followed by a period of supervised release to be determined by the court.  Weatherman will have to register as a sex offender after completing his prison sentence.

This case was investigated by the Albuquerque office of the FBI, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office and the New Mexico Regional Forensic Laboratory, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob A. Wishard.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and DOJ’s 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 http://www.justice.gov/psc/.

The case also was brought as a part of the New Mexico Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force’s mission, which is to locate, track, and capture Internet child sexual predators and Internet child pornographers in New Mexico.  There are 74 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies associated with the New Mexico ICAC Task Force, which is funded by a grant administered by the NMAGO.  Anyone with information relating to suspected child predators and suspected child abuse is encouraged to contact federal or local law enforcement.