Carson City man gets 10 years prison time on child porn charges
A 30-year-old man from Carson City was sentenced to 10 years in prison on child pornography charges, the Department of Justice said Monday in a news release.
U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Gordon handed down the sentence to Andrew Wayne Hamrick on April 6, according to the news release. He pleaded guilty July 28, 2014 to one count of distribution of child pornography and another count of receipt of child pornography. When his prison sentence is complete, Hamrick will face lifetime supervision, and he was ordered to pay $25,000 in restitution to various victims.
An undercover FBI agent posing as a woman interested in depictions of incest chatted with Hamrick online in Oct. 2013. Hamrick provided the undercover agent with instructions on how to teach their fictional 6-year-old niece to engage in sexual activity, the release said.
During the chat sessions, Hamrick emailed about 10 images of child pornography to the undercover agent. In March 2014, a federal search warrant led to the discovery of two cellphones found to contain approximately 6,000 images and 20 videos of child pornography. The images and videos included depictions of child rape, bestiality, sadistic or masochistic conduct, and bondage-related activities with both young boys and girls, the release said.
Hamrick, who worked as a locksmith in Carson City, was arrested while driving his car after federal agents obtained an arrest warrant. Law enforcement officers recovered another cellphone that Hamrick had activated only a few hours after his home was searched. Several more images of child pornography were recovered from the new phone.
Hamrick has been in custody since April 2014.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Carla Higginbotham. It was investigated by the FBI, Nevada Attorney General’s Office, and Northern Nevada Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.
The DOJ offers information about internet safety education at www.usdoj.gov/psc under the tab “resources.”
Wesley Juhl contributed. Contact reporter Cassandra Taloma at ctaloma@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Find her on Twitter: @CassandraTaloma
