The United States Attorney's Office announced that during a federal court session in Great Falls, on September 30, 2010, before U.S. District Judge Sam E. Haddon, DANIEL CHRISTOPHER COBURN, age 36, formerly of Great Falls, appeared for sentencing. COBURN was sentenced to a term of:

• Prison: 80 months, consecutive to a 50-year State sentence for which he is not eligible for parole for 18 years

• Special Assessment: $100

• Supervised Release: 5 years

COBURN was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to receipt of child pornography.

In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Cyndee L. Peterson, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:

In April of 2009, COBURN was sentenced in state court after having been convicted of two counts of incest. During the incest investigation, COBURN was interviewed and admitted that he had viewed child pornography via the Internet on a computer at his mother's house. After the interview, the computer was seized from his mother's house and forensically analyzed.

A forensic examiner located images depicting child pornography on the computer. Records on the computer indicated several websites depicting child pornography were visited as well as a number of Internet searches which were indicative of someone searching for child pornography. The examination concluded the website browsing for child pornography occurred between April 30, 2008, and July 11, 2008.

Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that COBURN will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, COBURN does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.

The investigation was a cooperative effort between the Great Falls Police Department and the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation.

 

 

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