DENVER – Jamie Sailas, age 31, of Metro Denver, was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge William J. Martinez to serve 258 months (over 21 years), followed by 30 years of supervised release for the production of child pornography, Acting U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent in Charge David Thompson announced. Sailas, who is in custody, was remanded at the conclusion of the sentencing hearing.
According to the stipulated facts contained in the defendant’s plea agreement, Sailas came to law enforcement attention when an HSI agent working in Washington, DC conducted a proactive undercover investigation upon an Internet website that hosted chat rooms. Users of these chat rooms have the ability to upload content to the chat room in the form of pictures and video. While conducting the investigation, the HSI agent came across a link to a video that depicted an adult male engaging in intercourse with a minor female. The investigation led the agent to specific subscriber information which had been submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) by the Internet Service Provider. The link was associated with an online storage account that belonged to Jamie Sailas, who at the time resided in Brighton, Colorado. There were nearly 2,900 uploaded file names associated with Sailas’s online storage account, consistent with file names of videos containing child pornography. An email account associated with the online storage account was also determined to belong to Sailas.
During the investigation, the local HSI agent learned that two additional NCMEC reports had been generated regarding Sailas, one which involved the email address associated with the online storage account. A legal search of the defendant’s email account reflected that Sailas used the account to send or receive approximately 5500 images and 240 videos of child pornography. The material included minors as young as infants, with a large majority of content depicting prepubescent minor females. It was ultimately determined that in addition to living in Brighton, the defendant worked at Game Trader in Brighton. Search warrants were executed for Sailas’s home, workplace, and vehicle in November 2014. Numerous electronic devices belonging to Sailas were recovered during the execution of the search warrants. During the forensic examination of the electronic devices recovered during the search warrants, numerous images and videos depicting child pornography were recovered, including an image of child pornography that was recovered from one of Sailas’s cell phones. The image of child pornography depicted his penis in the mouth of an approximately 4-week-old infant. The image was taken by Sailas. The defendant had access to the infant because he was a friend of the child’s mother.
“This defendant’s crimes were as heinous as they get,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer. “This substantial sentence in federal prison is just and proper.”
“The potential sentences for predators who produce child pornography are appropriately the most severe of any child exploitation crime,” said David A. Thompson, special agent in charge of HSI Denver. “Our special agents conducted an especially thorough investigation to ensure that this predator who would sexually molest a 4-week-old infant would be locked away from free society for a long time.”
Jamie Sailas was investigated by HSI with assistance from the Brighton Police Department. He was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alecia Riewerts.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.