Man jailed 21 months for child pornography

A judge sentences Ross Nishida under federal guidelines

A 45-year-old Manoa man will have to spend 21 months in federal prison for possessing child pornography.

At his sentencing in U.S. District Court yesterday, Ross Nishida apologized for what he did and said he felt badly because he let a lot of people down.

"I couldn't even face my parents for what I did," he said.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Oki Mollway said she went below the recommended sentencing guideline range of 27 to 33 months because she felt Nishida is not likely to commit the same crime and because the FBI recovered fewer images from Nishida's computer than they do in similar cases.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence Tong said Nishida could have had a different computer when he started downloading child pornography from the one he had when federal investigators knocked on his door in February 2003.

"Just like everybody else, he could have changed computers," Tong said.

Even though the conviction is for possessing child pornography, Tong said Nishida also admitted entering chat rooms posing as a 15-year-old boy and received Web-cam images of teenage girls.

The FBI went to Nishida's home as part of its investigation of an international child pornography ring code-named Operation Candyman, Tong said. Nishida's name appeared as a member of a Yahoo e-group that traded child pornography images.

The government did not have evidence Nishida traded images.

Mollway also sentenced Nishida to three years of supervised release following his prison term and ordered him to register as a sex offender.