March 11, 2015

Rancho Cordova Man Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Attempting to Receive Child Pornography

SACRAMENTO, CA—Kevin Michael Wood, 35, of Rancho Cordova, was sentenced today to five years in prison, to be followed by 10 years of supervised release and required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.

Wood pleaded guilty on October 22, 2014, to attempting to receive sexually explicit images of minors and child pornography. Woods had repeatedly requested that explicit photographs be e-mailed to him by a person he thought to be a minor.

According to court documents, on April 25, 2014, Wood responded to an ad in an online forum placed by a law enforcement officer posing as a 14-year-old girl. For the next 13 days, Wood exchanged e-mails with the purported girl; some were sexual in nature. On multiple occasions, Wood requested the girl send him sexually explicit photographs of herself. On May 7, 2014, Wood was arrested when he arrived at a Citrus Heights park intending to meet the girl and have sexual contact with her. For his intended sexual encounter, Wood purchased and brought with him various items, including condoms and an iPhone.

This case was the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Citrus Heights Police Department, and the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office’s High Tech Crimes Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Rodriguez prosecuted the case.

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 the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. Click on the “resources” tab for information about Internet safety education.