Yuba City Man Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison for Receipt of Child Pornography

 SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Stephen Gordon Wood, 41, of Yuba City, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez to five years in prison to be followed by 10 years of supervised release for receipt of child pornography, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced.

According to court documents, in 2012, federal agents discovered that Wood had made available thousands of images of suspected child pornography on a peer-to-peer file-sharing network that operated over the internet. Agents later searched Wood’s home and laptop computer pursuant to a search warrant. A forensic review of Wood’s laptop uncovered at least 792 images and 59 videos of child pornography, including images of prepubescent children being sexually exploited that had been deleted. Wood later admitted to searching for, downloading, and viewing child pornography for at least a year prior to his arrest in 2013.

This case was the product of an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew C. Thuesen and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert J. Artuz prosecuted the case.

Wood was ordered to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons or the U.S. Marshals Service on Jan. 11, 2021, to begin serving his sentence.

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.