Chesterfield Man Pleads Guilty to Distributing Child Pornography
| U.S. Attorney’s Office September 29, 2010 |
RICHMOND, VA—Wade Robert Ellis, 36, of Chesterfield County, Virginia, pled guilty today in U.S. District Court to one count of transportation of child pornography. Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, made the announcement after the plea was accepted by United States Magistrate Judge Dennis W. Dohnal.
Sentencing has been scheduled for January 14, 2011. Ellis faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years’ imprisonment and a maximum penalty of 20 years’ imprisonment, and will be required to register as a sex offender in any U.S. jurisdiction in which he lives, works, or attends school.
According to court documents, law enforcement officers identified Ellis making child pornography images available for download using peer-to-peer file sharing software. During their investigation, agents executed a search warrant at Ellis’s residence where they recovered several computers, at least 18 computer hard drives, hundreds of computer disks and other electronic storage media. A subsequent forensic examination of two of the computer hard drives revealed over 475 image files of child pornography. Ellis later admitted to agents that he had used various file-sharing programs to view and obtain child pornography over the Internet.
Ellis also admitted in a subsequent interview with law enforcement officers that he had engaged in sexually explicit conduct with a minor female relative while she was in his care and custody on multiple occasions in 2007 and 2009.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Richmond Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Elizabeth C. Wu prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.