By Rebecca Henely
A Corona man was sentenced to up to nine years in prison last week after pleading guilty to charges of promoting and possessing child porn, the Queens district attorney’s office said.
Elvis Infante, 35, who lived in an apartment complex on Granger Street and Westside Avenue, made his plea June 26 in Queens Supreme Court before Judge Richard Buchter and was sentenced the next day, the DA said.
Police had found more than 1,000 pictures and more than 500 videos of child pornography on his computer prior to his arrest in 2010, the DA said.
“In pleading guilty, the defendant admitted to possessing on his computer some very disturbing photographs and videos of children being depicted in a sexual manner or being sexually abused,” District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement. “It is important to remember that these images are actually crime scene photos depicting real children being emotionally and physically scarred for life. Such cruel acts cannot and will not be tolerated in a civilized society.”
Authorities had been alerted to Infante’s crimes Aug. 19, 2010, after the state Department of Criminal Justice’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force told the NYPD about a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the DA said.
Ning, an online platform at ning.com, where users can build social networking web sites, had informed the Center for Missing and Exploited Children that one of its users, “3SFOR17SZWOW7,” had uploaded 12 child pornography images, which Ning had intercepted, the DA said.
The username had been created and registered to the e-mail address XANNXANGELX@hotmail.com, which was in turn registered to Infante, the DA said.
NYPD detectives went to Infante’s home Nov. 24, 2010, and took his computer for analysis, the DA said. An initial search revealed the computer had 80 images of child pornography, but further searching revealed the computer actually had more than 1,000 images and more than 500 videos of child pornography, the DA said.
Infante was arrested December 2010 on a 3,000-count criminal complaint and arraigned January 2012 and had been held in jail in lieu of a $250,000 bond or $100,000 bail since then, the DA said.
He eventually pleaded guilty to promoting a sexual performance by a child, which earned him two to six years in prison, and possessing a sexual performance by a child, which earned him one to three years in prison, the DA said.
Reach reporter Rebecca Henely by e-mail at rhenely@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4564.
