San Jose Man Sentenced To Ten Years In Prison For Possession Of Child Pornography

 SAN JOSE – James Gould, Jr. was sentenced today to 10 years in prison, and ordered to pay $12,000 in restitution for possession of child pornography, announced United States Attorney David L. Anderson and Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge John F. Bennett.

Gould pleaded guilty on February 3, 2020, to Possession of Child Pornography.  According to the plea agreement, Gould admitted that on June 15, 2019, while on supervised release from a prior child pornography conviction, a probation officer conducted a random inspection of Gould’s cell phone, revealing that it had child pornography images on it.  As a result, a search was conducted of Gould’s residence, located in San Jose, California.  In his bedroom were 26 electronic devices capable of accessing the internet or processing or storing data, which Gould was prohibited from possessing as part of his supervised release conditions.  As part of his plea agreement, Gould further admitted that on one of his devices he possessed 556 child pornography images and 169 child pornography videos.  The images and videos that Gould possessed depicted infants and toddlers engaged in sexually explicit conduct, including sadistic or masochistic conduct and sexual abuse or exploitation of an infant or toddler. 

Gould, 32, of San Jose, was charged by an Information filed on January 30, 2020.  He was charged with Possession of Child Pornography.

The sentence was handed down by The Honorable Edward J. Davila, U.S. District Court Judge, following a guilty plea on one count of Possession of Child Pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(4)(B).  Judge Davila also sentenced the defendant to an 8 year period of supervised release.  The defendant has been in continuous custody since his initial appearance on the related supervised release violation (CR 12-00464 EJD) on June 27, 2019. 

Chinhayi Cadet is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Jessica Leung.  The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.