Former JBLM Soldier Sentenced to 17 Years in Prison for Production and Distribution of Child Pornography

            A former Army soldier and Marine was sentenced Monday to 17 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release for production and distribution of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan.  ARRON D. BURTON, pleaded guilty in January 2014, admitting that he made and distributed a video of his molestation of a three-year-old child.  U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle imposed the sentence.

            According to the plea agreement, BURTON was living at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in late 2012, when he came to the attention of law enforcement because of the child pornography he distributed via the internet.  Search warrants were executed on BURTON’s computers, and analysis showed more than 100 images and 27 videos of child pornography.

Following his release from prison, BURTON will be required to register as a sex offender.

The case was investigated by the FBI and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Francis Franze-Nakamura.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.  Led by United States 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.