LOS ANGELES – A Southern California man from Torrance has been sentenced to 87 months in federal prison for amassing a collection of more than 20,000 images and videos of child pornography that he made available to others via the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file-sharing system.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday that Jace Jeanes, 39, was sentenced on Monday by United States District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald. Following the completion of his prison term, Jeanes will be on supervised released for the rest of his life.
Jeanes pleaded guilty in July to one count of receiving child pornography. In a plea agreement filed with the court, Jeanes admitted possessing approximately 19,885 images and approximately 243 videos of child pornography.
In relation to the charge of receiving child pornography, Jeanes admitted receiving child pornography on his laptop computer in March 2014, specifically two videos depicting graphic images of child molestation.
Days after receiving the child pornography, an undercover law enforcement officer used BitTorrent to download more than 2,800 images and videos of child pornography from Jeanes’ computer and two hard drives.
“Every act of child molestation is a heinous offense, and the victimization of the child continues when the act is recorded and the recording is shared or possessed,” said United States Attorney Eileen M. Decker.
“These images and videos are a permanent record of the initial crime, and my office is committed to prosecuting participants of the underground market of visual depictions of that crime.”
Following his release from prison, Jeanes will be required to register as a sex offender and to avoid places where children are present.
The investigation into Jeanes was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Christina T. Shay of the Violent and Organized Crime Section.