DENVER – Daniel Spear, age 50, of Jefferson County, Colorado, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson to serve 240 months (20 years) in federal prison, followed by a life time of supervised release for the production of child pornography, U.S. Attorney John Walsh and FBI Denver Division Special Agent in Charge Thomas Ravenelle announced. Spear, who appeared at the sentencing hearing in custody, was remanded at its conclusion.
According to court documents, including the stipulated facts contained in the plea agreement, the defendant produced child pornography with a minor under his care and control, from approximately November 2012 through November 2014 in Colorado and Idaho. In addition, defendant Spear engaged in sexually explicit conduct, coercing the minor for the express purpose of producing child pornography. In total there were 3.256 unique photographs of child pornography of said minor on an SD card.
Further, there were another 503 images of the same minor on his laptop. The minor first admitted to a school counselor and later an FBI child forensic interviewer that she had been sexually molested for two years by Spear, with the first time occurring when she was in 7th grade.
“Defendant’s systematic sexual abuse of a child in his care earned him every second of his 20 year sentence,” said U.S. Attorney John Walsh. “That he turned this horrific abuse into child pornography further proves the justice of this severe sentence.”
