By Bee Staff
A federal judge in Sacramento has sentenced two men to 20-year prison terms in separate cases for child pornography offenses, the U.S. attorney said.
David Wehde, 24, of Sacramento, pleaded guilty on Aug. 18 to using a minor to produce images of child pornography and for receiving visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct via the Internet, said U.S. Attorney Benjamin G. Wagner.
Wehde is serving a 20-year state prison term he received in 2010 for molesting minors, Sacramento Superior Court and Bee reports show.
Russell Johnson, 46, of Tracy, pleaded guilty on July 1, to possessing child pornography, Wagner said.
Johnson has two prior state convictions for lewd acts upon a child under 14, Wagner said.
Wagner gave this account of Wehde's crimes:
Wehde came to the attention of law enforcement when a minor female from the Natomas area reported Wehde had contacted her via an Internet site called "espinthebottle.com," and that they had sexual relations.
At the time the girl was 13 years old, and Wehde was 21 years old. During the examination of Wehde's computer, a forensic analyst found images and videos of child pornography along with Internet chats between Wehde, the 13-year-old girl, and a second 13-year-old girl from El Dorado County.
In the chats between Wehde and the El Dorado County girl, the two discussed sex acts they had engaged in.
The forensic analyst found sexually explicit and provocative images Wehde had taken of this girl using his cell phone camera and evidence that he had sent one of the sexually provocative images to another person he communicated with via the Internet.
Wehde will be subject to lifetime supervision after his release from prison and will have to register as a sexual offender, Wagner said.
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