East Idaho man sentenced to ten years in federal prison for possessing child pornography

The following is a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Idaho.

POCATELLO — James Clifford Goodwin, III, 46, of Downey, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 120 months in prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release for possessing sexually explicit images of minors, U.S. Attorney Bart M. Davis announced. Goodwin was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge David C. Nye. Goodwin pleaded guilty on January 16, 2019.

According to court records, law enforcement agents searched Goodwin’s Downey residence in October 2017. Agents discovered that Goodwin had cell phones and other electronic storage devices. During a forensic search of Goodwin’s phones, agents found 33 images of child pornography. At Goodwin’s change of plea hearing, he admitted to knowingly possessing the images. At the time of the search, Goodwin was on supervised release for a federal felony conviction for possessing child pornography. The terms of his supervised release prohibited him from possessing any electronic storage devices or cell phones.

At sentencing, Judge Nye ordered Goodwin to forfeit the phones used in the commission of the offense. As a result of his conviction, Goodwin will be required to register as a sex offender.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations in Idaho Falls, and 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.”