Pinson Man Sentenced In Child Pornography Case

HUNTSVILLE, AL — A Pinson man was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to more than 15 years in prison for distribution of child pornography. Judge David Proctor sentenced Chadwick Rice, 48, to 188 months in prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release.

Rice pleaded guilty in March of 2020 to the charges. Rice was previously convicted of three counts of possession of child pornography in Jefferson County in 2016. This conviction required him to register as a sex offender.

According to the plea agreement, during an authorized Peer-to-Peer operation in December 2017, an agent downloaded images of suspected child pornography from a specific IP address. In February 2018, the agent received Cyber-Tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that images of child pornography had been uploaded from the same IP address.

Further investigation revealed that the IP address was registered to Rice. In March 2018, a search warrant was executed at Rice’s home in Pinson, where child pornography was located on Rice’s Samsung Galaxy cell phone. During a forensic review of Rice’s cell phone, 771 images of children being sexually exploited were identified.

Rice admitted he had various apps on his cell phone that he used to trade videos of child pornography with other individuals.

The FBI investigated the case, along with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations, Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and Vestavia Hills Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney R. Leann White prosecuted the case.

"There is zero tolerance for those who continue to break the law to engage in the sexual exploitation of children," U.S. Attorney Prim Escalona said. "Law enforcement will continue to vigilantly monitor the internet using every method available to us in order to uncover evidence of child exploitation and abuse so that we can protect children from such offenders."