James Leland Copeland, Child Pornography, Texas 2013

A 42-year-old man from Hallettsville, Texas, has been sentenced to a significant term of federal imprisonment for receiving child pornography.

James Leland Copeland, 42, pleaded guilty on May 10, 2013, and was subsequently sentenced to 28 years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Gregg Costa took into consideration the need to protect the public and deter future criminal behavior in the defendant and others.

Copeland was further ordered to serve the rest of his life on supervised release following completion of the prison term.

In handing down the sentence, Judge Costa noted Copeland’s recidivism and substantially greater role in the offense than the average child pornography recipient.

Copeland will also be required to register as a sex offender.

Copeland was a wanted person from Tennessee for failure to register as a sex offender.

He had been previously convicted of possession of child pornography in the Eastern District of Tennessee in 2004 and sentenced to 51 months in the Bureau of Prisons.

The U.S. Marshals Service determined that Copeland was living in Hallettsville and had failed to register within the state of Texas.

As a result of a federal arrest and search warrant, authorities searched Copeland’s residence on December 18, 2012, at which time several electronic storage devices and other written media were seized from the home.

The Corpus Christi Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (CCPD-ICAC) conducted a forensic examination of the electronic storage devices, which led to the discovery of several images of child pornography.

An examination of the written media revealed it to be the transcription of emails and other Internet-based communications between Copeland and various persons on the Internet.

Some of that correspondence was with a person calling herself ‘Ms. Majesty,’ later identified as Desiree Lee Padilla, of Brownsville.

The communications between the two were primarily sexual in nature and discussed their mutual sexual attraction to children.

Padilla sent several pictures of child pornography wherein she sexually assaulted an infant female relative.

Padilla was prosecuted by state authorities for aggravated sexual assault of a child and subsequently sentenced to 25 years imprisonment on September 11, 2013.

Copeland will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

Copeland’s case was investigated by HSI, CCPS-ICAC, with the assistance of USMS.

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