A Battle Ground man was sentenced Thursday in Clark County Superior Court to more than 9 1/2 years in prison for possessing and dealing child pornography involving infants and toddlers.
Dean Gordon Sizemore, 49, pleaded guilty July 16 to three counts of possessing depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and one count of dealing depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
He initially faced 10 counts of possessing, viewing and dealing the images. However, in exchange for his guilty pleas, the prosecution agreed to dismiss the other counts.
Investigators found hundreds of images of physical and sexual abuse of children younger than 10 on Sizemore’s laptop, according to a probable cause affidavit. Some of the images depicted the physical and sexual abuse of infants, court records said.
A Homeland Security Investigations special agent contacted the Clark County Sheriff’s Office in May 2014 regarding child pornography intercepted by a detective with the Oregon Interagency Child Exploitation Prevention Team from an Internet Protocol address in Clark County.
Sheriff’s deputies served a search warrant the following month at Sizemore’s residence and seized his computers, where they found more images, court records said.
Sizemore admitted that he had been downloading child pornography on his computer, according to court documents.
During his sentencing hearing, Sizemore’s defense attorney, Brian Walker, argued that his client should receive 24 months in prison, a lesser sentence than the standard range. He said Sizemore has dealt with post-traumatic stress disorder from the many years he spent in the military. He also argued that Sizemore has no criminal history and has tried to seek treatment regarding the child pornography.
“He knew it was wrong but didn’t realize how truly wrong it is,” Walker said.
Deputy Prosecutor Colin Hayes argued that PTSD is not an excuse and that Sizemore understood the seriousness of the crimes.
Judge Robert Lewis agreed that PTSD is not a defense and said Sizemore obviously knew what he was doing was wrong.
He sentenced Sizemore to a total of 116 months in prison. Sizemore was given credit for seven days in custody.
