BISMARCK, N.D. -- A federal judge in Bismarck sentenced Jonathan Holiday, 40, a Watford City and oil field trucking company operator to 60 months in prison Friday for receiving and possessing massive amounts of child pornography.
Holiday had hundreds of videos and thousands of photos in his possession.
U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hovland rendered his decision after hearing from Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Delorme, defense attorney Robert Bolinske Jr. and Holiday.
Delorme wanted a longer sentence because of the quantity of child pornography, both videos and photographs. Holiday, who had not fully taken responsibility for his actions, had used Twitter to send and receive those images, according to Delorme.
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"He's continuing with the tale this one bad (Twitter) follower is responsible for all the images he had," Delorme told the judge. "I just can't believe that one follower sent him all that stuff." Holiday stuck to the story, however. Although he took responsibility, he told Hovland that "this all was triggered by one (Twitter) follower."
Holiday said he wasn't going to call himself a victim. Nor did he say he had a fascination with child pornography, maintaining he had only experimented with it for 30 days.
Holiday said his Nevada-based trucking company, that frequently operates through the North Dakota oil patch, was down to a single employee whom he was struggling to keep.
