Casper Man Sentenced For Child Pornography Possession
A Casper man was sentenced this week to nearly five years in prison for possession of child pornography, according to federal court records.
Wolf Elkins Duran, who was 24 when arrested last year, will spend four years, 9 months of imprisonment to followed by five years of probation after release from custody, according to minutes of the sentencing by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Freudenthal on Monday.
Freudenthal also ordered Duran to pay $8,500 in restitution, register as a sex offender, undergo sex offender and substance abuse treatment, undergo cognitive-behavioral and mental health treatment, and use only a government-approved computer.
In January, Duran pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography, and in exchange for the the government agreed to drop a second count of possession of child pornography.
The government regards child pornography as a crime of violence because it involves often brutal assaults on children who are not able to give consent to sexual activity.
The case started March 2016 when an agent of the Department of Homeland Security saw Duran had been arrested in Casper on a warrant unrelated to child pornography,, according to an affidavit by an agent with the Casper office of the Wyoming Internet Crimes (ICAC) Against Children Task Force.
Duran was already a subject of an ICAC investigation in by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation in Cheyenne. The DCI had linked him to a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about a child pornography image on a website.
The Homeland Security agent and the ICAC agent interviewed Duran at the county jail. Duran initially denied having an interest in child pornography, but later admitted to possessing and distributing hundreds of images and videos.
Duran told the agents the images could be found on micro-SD cards that were in his possessions at the jail. An agent asked a deputy at the jail to see Duran's property and found SD cards and three cell phones.
After a Natrona County Circuit Court judge granted her a search warrant, the agent analyzed a phone and an SD card. On the phone, she found 23 images of Duran's face and four videos depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
On the SD card, she found 17 images with Duran's face, 208 images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, 87 videos, and seven images and one video of minors engaged in S&M pornography, according to the affidavit.
Meanwhile, Duran had been charged in Natrona County District Court with one felony count of aggravated assault and battery on a pregnant woman, and a misdemeanor count of battery.
That case began in January when police responded to a call about a family fight at an apartment on East 12th Street. The woman who called 911 said her uncle, Duran, hit her and ran from the area, according to the police affidavit filed with circuit court.