JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 29-year-old Jacksonville man has been sentenced to six years and 10 months in prison for receiving child pornography over the Internet.
William Smith III was also ordered to serve a 10-year term of supervised release and register as a sex offender. Smith pleaded guilty on June 3 and has been in the custody of the United States Marshals Service since Aug. 27.
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According to court documents, an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Jacksonville began an investigation to identify people who had access to and/or were trading images and videos depicting child pornography over the Internet.
The agent determined that a computer using a particular Internet protocol address in the Jacksonville area was hosting images of child pornography using a file sharing program. The agent made a connection to the computer through the Internet and downloaded several video files directly from the computer. Each of the videos depicted young children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Further investigation revealed that the IP address resolved back to Smith's Jacksonville home.
On Dec. 6, FBI agents and other law enforcement officers executed a federal search warrant at Smith's home and seized, among other things, five computers and 66 CDs. A subsequent forensic analysis of the computer used by Smith revealed that it contained more than 250 videos of child pornography.
During an interview with law enforcement, Smith admitted to accumulating and collection child pornography and said that he enjoyed "the naughtiness of it." He said that child pornography videos "get your heart going."