A local Marine pilot has been sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison based on charges of distributing child pornography, U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy announced Friday.
Marine Capt. Joshua Taylor, 28, was stationed at MCAS Miramar and flew Super Stallion Helicopters before getting caught up in a disturbing case of child pornography in San Diego.
The Marine pilot is accused of possessing nearly 5,000 images and videos of child porn, including images of children as young as four years old, according to authorities.
Agents began investigating Taylor in 2011 after they found someone at his home in Mira Mesa was accessing a child porn website. The home, which was later sold, was shared by Taylor and his wife.
Last December, federal agents served a search warrant and discovered thousands of child porn images stored on a disk inside Taylor’s home. At that time, Taylor was deployed aboard USS Makin Island.
Military investigators interviewed him and searched his quarters, where they found more computers and more images of child pornography.
On May 31, 2012, Taylor was arrested by Homeland Security Investigations and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service aboard MCAS Miramar, where he was employed as a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Local
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Janis L. Sammartino sentenced Taylor to serve 87 months in federal prison and an additional 10 years of supervised release.
According to his plea, Taylor admitted that he knowingly distributed pornographic images of children in May 2010 and November 2011, federal authorities said.
