A former Ohio University student was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison and 10 years of supervised release yesterday after pleading guilty to felony possession of child pornography.
Mackenzie C. Culp, 22, of Warsaw, Ohio, possessed several thousand images of child pornography depicting prepubescent minors, according to documents from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The court has not yet determined when Culp will have to report to jail.
Culp was last enrolled at OU during Fall Quarter of this academic year, according to the university registrar’s office. Culp entered his guilty plea Nov. 4.
During a search of Culp’s Bromley Hall dorm room on May 19, federal investigators seized a laptop, thumb drive, hard drive and 41 CDs, according to court documents.
FBI agents discovered in April that Culp was sharing files containing suspected child pornography through a “peer-to-peer” program under the username “Dogfish1.” OU police cooperated with the investigation and provided the FBI with Culp’s name and address after agents traced his computer’s IP address.
Culp must now register as a sex offender for at least 15 years, said Michael Hunter, the prosecutor for the case, in a January interview.
Culp must also allow monitoring software to be installed on his computer during his term of supervised release, according to court documents.
Prosecutors asked for a five-year sentence and 10 years of supervised release, but the judge’s sentence still lies within the U.S. sentencing guidelines for Culp’s offense level, said Fred Alverson, law enforcement coordinator for the U.S. Attorney’s office of the Southern District of Ohio.
Elizabeth Werner, Culp’s attorney, did not return a call for comment.
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