Ninety Years Possible For Child Porn Plea

A guilty plea to federal child porn charges could mean up to 90 years behind bars for a man said to have one of the largest computer child porn collections in northern Alabama.

Jimmy Ray Tompkins pleaded in federal court to one charge of possessing child porn, five counts of receiving child porn, and one count criminal forfeiture, regarding a collection said to include over 75,000 images on his computer. U.S. Attorney Alice Martin told the Times Daily the images were downloaded from the Internet between April 2000 and August 2003.

The minimum sentence Tompkins faces is five years, while the maximum is not more than ninety. He also faces fines up to $1.5 million, the Times Daily said, as well as forfeiting his computer.

"Actually, only half those images were alleged to be child pornography," Tompkins's attorney, Ralph Holt, told the newspaper. "The rest were adult pornography." He also said his client has "some mental issues" that the judge is likely to consider at his sentencing, which has yet to be scheduled.