LAREDO, Texas (CN) - A trucker was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for the child porn police found on his cellphone after arresting him for smuggling undocumented immigrants.
Timothy Glenn Williams, 50, of Carl Junction, Mo., was arrested in May 2012 at a Border Patrol checkpoint north of Laredo after a dog alerted on his trailer and agents found 15 undocumented immigrants inside, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Federal agents searched Williams' cellphone and found 297 child porn images on it that Williams admitted he downloaded from the internet, prosecutors said.
The images were sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which found Williams had photos of 28 children in its database, according to Williams' plea deal .
Williams pleaded guilty to one count of child porn possession in November 2014. It's unclear from the case record why prosecutors didn't also charge him with alien smuggling.
U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo sentenced Williams to the statutory maximum of 10 years on Monday. Garcia did not buy Williams' claim that he did not realize the girls on his phone were underage, prosecutors said, because "their birthdates clearly appeared on his phone."
Williams must serve 25 years probation when he gets out, and register as a sex offender.
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