ITHACA, N.Y. – A former Ithaca College student was sentenced to six years in federal prison on Wednesday after pleading guilty to the transportation and possession of thousands of images of child pornography.
Nicholas Feminella, 21, who had been living in Danby, was arrested after investigators searched his residence in November 2015 and recovered thousands of images and hundreds of videos of child pornography. According to court documents, Feminella transported the images and videos by uploading them to a Dropbox account from his computer. Police say 13,000 images and 870 videos were found in his possession.
Related: Former IC student pleads guilty to having thousands of images of child pornography
Feminella pleaded guilty in April to one count of transportation of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography before Judge Thomas J. McAvoy in the U.S. District Court in Albany. The case was prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Geoffrey J. L. Brown.
The case was investigated by the FBI, the New York State Police-Computer Crime Unit and Investigators from the New York State Police. Records state Feminalla admitted to investigators that the children in the videos were about 8 years old and that he had been watching child pornography for years.
Dave Maley, senior associate director of media and community relations at Ithaca College, said Feminella has not been a student at the college since Spring 2016.
In addition to his 6-year incarceration period, McAvoy also imposed a 15-year post-release supervision period to Feminella and $20,000 dollars in restitution which will be paid to the victims.