A man was sentenced this week to nearly three years in prison for uploading sexually explicit content involving children to his Google account.
James Ray Smith, 32, of Roseburg, was sentenced by Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge Patricia Fassett to two years and 10 months for first-degree possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct — a class B felony.
He also received 36 months of community custody and credit for time served.
Smith pleaded guilty on March 3, and initially faced 11 charges: 10 counts of first-degree possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, and one in the second degree.
According to the police report, around Feb. 10, 2023, Google reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a user under the name “JR Smith” associated with two Gmail accounts — one of which had the handle of sinisterlifestle93@gmail.com — had uploaded 11 files depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
Longview police reportedly obtained Smith's phone after he was arrested in Kelso for an unrelated crime, and found 10 videos on an SD card inside a phone. The footage included kids under the age of 10 conducting sex acts, court records show.
According to the pre-sentencing information report, Smith aspired to become a Pornhub content creator by downloading pornographic videos and editing compilations, hoping this would generate enough views for him to make money on the site. Smith said that at times, he had about 1,000 videos on his phone intended for editing and didn't intentionally download the videos with minors.
He said he "felt like an idiot," adding that he should have been more careful when downloading footage and never viewed the ones involving kids.
As stated in the pre-sentencing information report, Smith's mother told a corrections officer that her son is a caring and loving person who struggled with drugs and was in need of treatment.
