Virginia Man Sentenced to 108 Months in Federal Prison on Child Pornography, Firearms Charges

Abingdon, VIRGINIA – A Virginia man, who previously pled guilty to federal charges related to his admitted viewing of depictions of child pornography and the possession of an illegal firearm, was sentenced today in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Abingdon.

Tony Michael Spencer, 42, of Raven, Virginia, previously pled guilty to one count of receiving depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct and one count of possessing a short-barreled shotgun. Today in District Court, Spencer was sentenced to 108 months in federal prison and 15 years of supervised release thereafter.

According to evidence presented at previous hearings by Assistant United States Attorney Zachary T. Lee, after obtaining information that Spencer was part of a group of individuals utilizing a website on the internet to distribute child pornography, the Federal Bureau of Investigation executed a search warrant on Spencer’s residence on August 6, 2015. At the time of the search warrant, Spencer admitted to viewing child pornography on the website and FBI agents located an unregistered sawed-off shotgun in the residence.

To date, the FBI’s examination of Spencer’s computers seized at the time of the search has located more than 300,000 images of child pornography.

The investigation of the case was conducted by Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Zachary T. Lee prosecuted the case for the United States.