Maroon man sentenced after investigators found more than 28,000 images and videos of child pornography on his electronic devices

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – An Auburn man will spend the next five years in prison after Nebraska State Patrol investigators found thousands of images of child pornography on his electronic devices.

On Tuesday, a judge sentenced 49-year-old Donald Stevens Jr. for receiving and distributing child pornography. There is no possibility of parole in the federal system. After his release from prison, he was to begin a five-year period of supervised release and register as a sex offender.

Stevens was also ordered to pay $5,000 to a reserve fund for victims of child pornography.

U.S. Attorney Susan Lehr said the case began when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children became aware of an account that had uploaded six files of child pornography in January 2022. The IP address was from Stevens.

A search warrant was obtained for all electronics in Stevens’ home and was executed in April 2022. During the search, Stevens told investigators he lived alone and no one had access to his Internet, U.S. Attorney Lehr said. When asked whether investigators would find child pornography, Stevens reportedly replied, “Unfortunately, I don’t know if they will. He claimed that “random people” sent him child pornography and advised him to save it, prosecutor Lehr said.

Forensic searches of the recovered electronics resulted in a total of approximately 28,000 photos and 1,300 videos.

Investigators then executed a search warrant on Stevens’ cloud account, which uncovered 5,995 images of child pornography and five videos. An additional search warrant was also served on another online account and approximately 20 child pornography files were found there, including 19 videos.

The case was investigated by the Nebraska State Patrol.

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