The United States Attorney's Office announced that during a federal court session in Missoula, on September 23, 2011, before U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy, KONNAR HAYES PURSELL, a 22-year-old resident of Missoula, appeared for sentencing. PURSELL was sentenced to a term of:

Prison: 38 months

Special Assessment: $100

Forfeiture: laptop and router

Supervised Release: 10 years

PURSELL was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to possession 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:

As part of an Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigation, the Missoula County Sheriff's Office received a referral that an IP address in Missoula had child pornography files available for download between June and August 2010. A detective determined PURSELL was the subscriber on the IP address and a search warrant was obtained for PURSELL's residence in Missoula.

On August 17, 2010, the search warrant was served. PURSELL and four roommates were at the residence. When interviewed, PURSELL admitted to using his laptop (which was password protected) to download files via LimeWire. He disclosed his search terms and some of them were indicative of search terms used by someone seeking child pornography. He estimated he had downloaded between 500-1000 images and/or videos of child pornography. A laptop computer and wireless router were seized.

The laptop was forensically analyzed. The examiner recovered evidence of child pornography images and videos. He located Internet browsing activity indicative of one seeking out child pornography. Google search terms were also located: girl cry rape; what should i search for for cp on lime wire; cp keywords; pthc keywords; free panty piss teens; underage girl topsite; limewire cp keywords; braces softcoar tube; and others.

Five other computers (which belonged to PURSELL's roommates) were analyzed and no child pornography was located.

Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that PURSELL will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, PURSELL 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 Montana Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, the Missoula County Sheriff's Office, the Missoula Police Department, and the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation.

 

 

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