Oregon Man Sentenced to 52 Months in Federal Prison for Child Pornography Offense

            Fayetteville, Arkansas – Kenneth Elser, United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, announced that Edgar Carlstrom, age 33, of Keizer, Oregon, (formerly of Bentonville, Arkansas) was sentenced today to 52 months in federal prison followed by ten years of supervised release on one count of Accessing the Internet with the Intent to View Child Pornography. Carlstrom was also ordered to pay a $3,500 fine.  The Honorable Timothy L. Brooks presided over the sentencing in the United States District Court in Fayetteville.

            According to court records, in September of 2014, the Northwest Arkansas Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a user profile had uploaded pictures depicting child pornography to a Google account.  The account was traced back to a residence in Bentonville, Arkansas occupied in part by the defendant Edgar Carlstrom.  Agents executed a search warrant on the residence where they located and seized three laptop computers, an external hard drive, a USB drive, and three memory cards in the bedroom. Carlstrom provided computer passwords to the agents at that time and admitted to downloading child pornography. A search of the computers and hard drives yielded a total of over 1,000 images and three videos containing depictions of child pornography in which some of the children were under 12 years of age.  Carlstrom was indicted by a federal grand jury on July 15, 2015 and pleaded guilty to the charge on February 5, 2016.

            “Child sexual abuse leaves lasting scars on victims and the criminals who view images of this abuse are directly responsible for supporting the spread of these illegal images,” said Raymond R. Parmer Jr., special agent in charge of HSI New Orleans.

            This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigation and the Northwest Arkansas Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Assistant United States Attorney Denis Dean prosecuted the case for the United States.

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Related court documents may be found on the Public Access to Electronic Records website @ www.pacer.gov