Brazoria County Woman Sentenced to Prison for Distribution of Child Pornography

HOUSTON—Carrie Louise Kelly, 31, has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for distribution of child pornography, United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced today. U.S. District Judge Sim Lake sentenced Kelly this afternoon to the 60-month term of imprisonment to be followed by 25 years of supervised release.

Kelly pleaded guilty on March 2, 2011.

On April 13, 2010, an FBI undercover agent in Oklahoma City used a file-sharing program to search for child pornography, at which time he found a computer which had numerous images and video files depicting child pornography available for sharing. The agent downloaded 10 files (nine images and one video) and, when reviewed, all files contained child pornography. The next day, in Rochester, N.Y., another agent also used a file sharing program to search for child pornography and observed a computer also making numerous images and video files depicting child pornography available for sharing. 45 files were downloaded and reviewed which were all found to contain child pornography. In both instances, the computer in question was associated with Kelly.

On April 23, 2010, an undercover officer in Boynton Beach, Fla., also downloaded images from Kelly’s computer and contacted officers with the Richwood, Texas, Police Department who prepared and executed a state search warrant on April 28, 2010, at Kelly’s residence. At that time, officers seized two Dell laptop computers. A forensic exam was conducted and a total of 3368 images and 178 videos containing child pornography were located. Kelly admitted to being the one that was downloading child pornography from the Internet.

The charges against Kelly were the result of an investigation conducted by the FBI along with the Richwood and Pearland, Texas, Police Departments. Kelly has been detained in federal custody since her arrest where she will remain pending transfer to a Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

This case, prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Stabe, 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, 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.