CEDAR RAPIDS – A North Iowa man who received child pornography pled guilty on June 26, 2018, in federal court in Sioux City and could faces 20 years in prison.
Joe Elliott Sinnott, 27, from Milford, Iowa, was convicted of one count of receiving child pornography.
In a plea agreement, Sinnott admitted that from January 2018 until April 27, 2018, he knowingly used KiK messenger to receive child pornography. Sinnott also admitted to receiving fully nude photographs of a 15-year-old female that he had met in person in Minnesota last year.
Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Leonard T. Strand will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Sinnott remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing. Sinnott faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, a $100 special assessment, and 5 years to life of supervised release following any imprisonment.
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 individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ajay J. Alexander and was investigated by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations and Spirit Lake Police Department.
give the guy a break