San Francisco, California - James Calvert was sentenced Friday to 12 years in prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release for distribution and receipt of child pornography, announced United States Attorney David L. Anderson and FBI Special Agent in Charge Craig D. Fair. The sentence was handed down by the Honorable Susan Illston, U.S. District Judge.
Calvert, 27, of San Bruno, California, pleaded guilty to the charges on August 14, 2020. According to the plea agreement, Calvert admitted that in May of 2019, he posted a video that depicted a prepubescent minor female performing oral sex on an adult male and a video of a prepubescent minor being raped by an adult male in the “Babyprn” group chat-room of Kik, an instant messaging application used on mobile telephones.
Calvert also admitted in the plea agreement that in December 2019, he encouraged a fifteen-year-old female victim to perform a sex act on camera and to send him a video of her performing that sex act to his Kik account. Calvert admitted that he knew the victim was a minor when he encouraged her to send him the video. The government pointed out in additional filed papers that Calvert engaged in the December 2019 conduct after he had been charged with the May 2019 offense and had been released under supervision.
Calvert was arraigned on August 13, 2020, on a Superseding Information charging him with one count of distribution of child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252(a)(2) and (b)(2), and one count of receipt of child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252(a)(2) and (b)(2).
In addition to the 12 year prison term, Judge Illston ordered Calvert to serve a lifetime term of supervised release, to begin after the prison term ends. The defendant, who has been in custody since February of 2020, is presently serving his sentence.
Ajay Krishnamurthy and Barbara J. Valliere are the Assistant U.S. Attorneys who prosecuted the case with the assistance of Margoth Turcios. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office in Oklahoma.
