Mesquite Man with a 120-Gigabyte Child Pornography Collection Admits Advertising Child Pornography on the Internet
Defendant Faces up to 30 Years in Federal Prison
| U.S. Attorney’s Office January 03, 2012 |
DALLAS—Jonathan Ryan Vittitow, 29, of Mesquite, Texas, pleaded guilty this morning before U.S. Magistrate Judge Renée Harris Toliver to one count of advertising child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas. Vittitow, who has been in custody since his arrest in October 2011, faces a statutory sentence of not less than 15 years, or more than 30 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine and up to a lifetime of supervised release. Sentencing is set for April 2, 2012, before U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay.
According to documents filed in the case, Vittitow used peer-to-peer file-sharing software to: 1) seek, and offer to receive, child pornography videos of boys age 6 and under; and 2) advertised files available for sharing that included child pornography of minor girls and other preteen children.
In addition, according to the court documents, when Dallas FBI agents executed a search warrant at his residence, a cursory review of his computer determined that it contained approxi- mately 20,000 images and videos, mostly of child pornography. In fact, Vittitow admitted that his child pornography collection is approximately 120 gigabytes in size.
Court documents further indicate that investigators located chat logs showing that Vttitow and his online “friends” exchanged and discussed child pornography, including “hands-on” offending. In some conversations, Vittitow asked how to drug three children to sexually assault them.
This case 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 (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
The FBI and the Plano Police Department are investigating. Assistant U.S. Attorney Camille Sparks is in charge of the prosecution.