Burgaw Man Sentenced for Receipt of Child Pornography

WILMINGTON—United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced that in federal court today, Paul Joseph Schmura, Jr., 49, of Burgaw, North Carolina, was sentenced by Senior United States District Court Judge James C. Fox to 121 months’ imprisonment, followed by a lifetime of supervised release.

On February 19, 2013, Schmura pled guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2252(a)(2).

In February 2012, an undercover agent with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation initiated an online investigation related to the distribution of child pornography. The undercover agent identified a computer sharing known Child Pornography and captured the Internet protocol (IP) address of the host computer. The IP address allowed law enforcement to identify a specific computer which led to the identification of Schmura. A search of Schmura’S residence on February 27, 2012 led, to the seizure of several computers, external hard drives, and media storage devices containing at least 14,678 images of child pornography.

This case is part of the Project Safe Childhood initiative, a national program aimed at ensuring that criminals exploiting children are effectively prosecuted by making full use of all available law enforcement resources at every level. For more information about this important national initiative, go to www.justice.gov/psc.

Investigation of this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Ethan A. Ontjes prosecuted this case for the United States.