FAYETTEVILLE — A Fayetteville man is now serving an 11-year sentence for downloading child pornography.
Jonathan Cicero, 33, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography in October as part of a plea agreement in federal court.
Chief United States District Judge Jimm Larry Hendren, in a sentencing hearing Tuesday, also fined Cicero $17,500 and placed him on supervised release for the rest of his life.
Cicero faced 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the single count.
He was arrested in February after the Fayetteville Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit searched his home and seized computers and storage devices containing sexually explicit images of children, which Cicero admitted to downloading.
The case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative the Department of Justice launched in May 2006 to combat the exploitation of children online.
“This case is an excellent example of cooperation between state and federal law enforcement and prosecutors in furtherance of Project Safe Childhood,” U.S. Attorney Conner Eldridge said in a news release. “We will continue to work together to hold accountable those that violate federal child pornography laws.”