LOS ANGELES
A Fresno man was sentenced Friday to life in federal prison for engaging in a child exploitation enterprise and creating child sexual abuse material, according to officials.
John Richard Brinson Jr. made the porn of four young children, including children he abused with his co-defendants who were previously sentenced to lengthy prison terms, officials stated.
Brinson Jr., 28, was sentenced this afternoon by U.S.District Court Judge André Birotte Jr.
In imposing the life sentence, Judge Birotte said Brinson’s conduct was “evil – I don’t know how else to say it.”
Brinson pleaded guilty in July 2021 to one count of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise and four counts of production of child pornography, each representing a different victim, according to authorities.
According to court documents, in 2016 and 2017, Brinson distributed and advertised child porn on a website dedicated to the sexual abuse of children ages from birth to 5 years old.
Brinson – along with co-defendants Arlan Harrell, of Hawthorne, and Moises Martinez, of San Jose – was an active member of this website
The website was hosted on Tor, a computer network on the dark web that is specifically designed to facilitate anonymous communication over the internet.
Brinson used the website to view and advertise child porn.
Additionally, Brinson used this website to meet like-minded offenders, including Harrell and Martinez, and commit additional offenses against children with them in person, officials stated.
“The life sentence imposed in this case is warranted by the defendant’s callous and violent abuse of children, some of whom were filmed while screaming in pain,” said U.S. Attorney Tracy L. Wilkison. “The child exploitation enterprise impacted more than 20 victims – children who were sexually assaulted, sometimes repeatedly, solely for the pleasure of this defendant and his cohorts.’
“The depravity of this enterprise was reflected in today’s sentencing,” said acting Special Agent in Charge Eddy Wang of Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles.
According to court documents, Brinson created child sexual abuse material of children between approximately three to nine years of age.
On at least two occasions, Brinson and Harrell met at Brinson’s home to create porn depicting their sexual abuse of two of the minors together.
On one of those occasions, Harrell secured the custody of another minor and traveled with the minor to Brinson’s house to create porn depicting both Harrell and Brinson engaging in the sexual abuse of that minor.
On another occasion, Brinson and Martinez arranged to meet at Brinson’s house to create porn depicting their sexual abuse of two minors together, one brought by Brinson and one by Martinez.
In total, Brinson, Martinez, and Harrell pleaded guilty to sexually exploiting more than 20 children under the age of nine, including 10 children four years of age or younger.
The child porn that Brinson created by himself and with his co-defendants took place in the house he shared with co-defendant Keith Lawniczak.
According to court documents, Lawniczak admitted that he offered Brinson a room in his house to live in free of charge and benefitted from Brinson’s abuse of one of the minors because he had an opportunity to view the sexual acts between Brinson and the minor.
Co-defendant Martinez pleaded guilty to engaging in a child exploitation enterprise and production of child pornography and was sentenced to 55 years in prison.
Lawniczak pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of a child and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Harrell pleaded guilty to engaging in a child exploitation enterprise, obtaining custody of a minor for purposes of producing child pornography, production of child pornography and possession of child pornography.
He was sentenced to life in prison in February.