Shasta County Man Sentenced to 6.5 Years in Prison for Receiving Child Pornography

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Larry Steven Occhipinti, 40, of Cottonwood, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Troy L. Nunley to 6 1/2 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release for receipt of child pornography, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.

According to court documents, law enforcement identified a computer at Occhipinti’s residence offering files of child pornography. On May 2, 2014, law enforcement agents executed a search warrant and found hundreds of deleted images of child pornography on Occhipinti’s computer and compact disks containing more than a dozen videos of child pornography.

At the sentencing hearing, Occhipinti claimed that he had never hurt a child. Judge Nunley disagreed, noting that by viewing such images of child pornography, Occhipinti was contributing to the market for producers of these images. “To say that you’ve never hurt anyone, you need to understand . . . that you have,” Judge Nunley said.

“When a predator publishes the victim’s images on the Internet, they live on forever. Today’s sentencing serves as a reminder that ICE will work tirelessly with its law enforcement counterparts to identify and hold accountable those who prey on innocent children,” said Tatum King, acting special agent in charge for HSI San Francisco.

This case was the product of an investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Special Assistant United States Attorney Josh F. Sigal prosecuted the case.

Occhipinti is scheduled to self-surrender to begin serving his sentence on November 3, 2015.

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 those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. Click on the “resources” tab for information about Internet safety education.