Federal Judge Sentences Buncombe Co. Man To 12.5 Years In Prison On Child Pornography Charges

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – On Thursday, April 16, 2015, U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger sentenced Robert Lemarr, 42, of Leicester, N.C. to 12.5 years in prison on child pornography charges, announced Jill Westmoreland Rose, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.  Lemarr was ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release, to register as a sex offender, and to pay $20,000 as restitution to his victims.

B.W. Collier, Acting Director of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and Acting Asheville Police Chief Steve Belcher join Acting U.S. Attorney Rose in making today’s announcement.

According to court documents and the sentencing hearing, on or about August 2014, Lemarr did knowingly transport and aid and abet the transportation of child pornography.  Court records indicate that on or about December 2012, Lemarr possessed over 100,000 images of child pornography, including images of toddlers and infants.  Lemarr pleaded guilty to one count of transportation of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography and has been in federal custody since April 2014.  The case was investigated by the Asheville Police Department and the State Bureau of Investigation and assisted by the North Carolina Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

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Judge Reidinger also sentenced on Tuesday, April 14, 2015, Robert Maillet, 56, of Asheville, N.C., to 148 months in prison.  According to court records, Maillet pleaded guilty in April 2014 to one count of receiving child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.  According to court documents and court records, law enforcement discovered approximately 8,000 images of child pornography in computer hardware that were seized from Maillet’s residence. In addition to the prison term, Judge Reidinger also ordered Maillet to a lifetime of supervised release and to pay $3,000 as restitution to a victim of child pornography.  Mailett has been in federal custody since January 2014.  The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, SBI, and the Asheville Police Department.

The defendants will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.  All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.

The case 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 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.