Ten-Year Prison Sentence for Conviction on Federal Child Pornography Offense

United States Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales announced that, this afternoon, United States District Judge Judith C. Herrera sentenced William Clyde Pumphrey, 54, to a 10-year term of imprisonment to be followed by a 10-year term of supervised release based on his conviction on a receipt of child pornography offense. Pumphrey also was ordered to register as a sex offender. Pumphrey has been in federal custody since his arrest in Salt Lake City, UT, on August 31, 2009.

On June 25, 2009, a federal grand jury in Albuquerque returned a six-count indictment charging Pumphrey with three counts of receipt of visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct (Count 1-3) and three counts of possession of possession of matter containing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct (Counts 4-6). The indictment alleged that the six offenses occurred in March 2007 in Bernalillo County, New Mexico. The statutory penalty for a conviction on counts 1-3, the receipt offenses, is not less than five years' imprisonment and not more than 20 years' imprisonment. The statutory penalty for a conviction on Counts 3-6, the possession offenses, is not more than 10 years' imprisonment.

On May 5, 2010, Pumphrey entered a guilty plea to Count 2, charging him with receipt of child pornography, under a plea agreement with the United States Attorney’s Office. Under the terms of the plea agreement, the United States Attorney’s Office agreed to dismiss Counts 1 and 3 through 6 at sentencing, and Pumphrey agreed to a 10-year term of imprisonment on his conviction on Count 2.

In his plea agreement, Pumphrey admitted that, in March 2007, he received and possessed child pornography. Pumphrey also admitted that he attempted to destroy the evidence of his unlawful conduct to obstruct an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Specifically, while in jail on another charge, Pumphrey called his former landlord and asked him to destroy the computer and disks in his Albuquerque apartment because he knew that the FBI would be looking for evidence of his unlawful conduct. Instead, the landlord gave Pumphrey’s computer and disks to the FBI after the FBI obtained a search warrant for these items in August 2008.

According to the plea agreement, Pumphrey acknowledged that a forensic examination of his computer and computer disks revealed hundreds of images of child pornography that he downloaded from the Internet in March 2007. Pumphrey further acknowledged that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children determined that the the child pornography images from his computer and disks included 804 images of 79 children who have been identified as child pornography victims and have been rescued and 18 videos of four children who have been identified as child pornography victims and have been rescued.

The case was investigated by the FBI and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Charlyn E. Rees. It was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. 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.