Man Who Received and Downloaded Child Pornography Sentenced to More than Eight Years in Prison

A man who received child pornography over the internet was sentenced today to more than eight years in federal prison.

Christopher Goins, age 47, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received the prison term after a May 13, 2024, guilty plea to one count of receiving child pornography.

In a plea agreement, Goins admitted that between December 2019 and December 2021, he knowingly received and downloaded photos and videos of child pornography, including depictions of minors under 12 years of age. During a search of Goins' home in December 2021, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized 33 storage devices containing over 600 images of child pornography. In January 2024, following his arrest on federal child pornography charges, Goins said that additional child pornography would be found on his phone. During a search of Goins' home, FBI agents found child pornography on Goins' laptop and additional storage devices which Goins had obtained after his home was searched in December 2021.

Goins was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams. Goins was sentenced to 97 months' imprisonment. He was ordered to make $3,000 in restitution to a child victim depicted in videos and photos he possessed. He must also serve a five-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Goins is being held in the United States Marshal's custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Daniel C. Tvedt and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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 individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

The case file number is 24-CR-06.

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