A Utica man has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for possessing child pornography, with a federal judge also ordering a decade of supervised release once he's out. James Winston III was sentenced this week in a case that involved files uploaded to a cloud storage account and material found on cell phones recovered late last year.
According to WKTV, Winston received the federal prison sentence for possession of child pornography and was ordered by U.S. District Judge Anthony Brindisi to serve 10 years of supervision after his release. The station's report also states that Winston will be required to register as a sex offender once he completes his sentence.
WKTV's account says Winston admitted that several files of child pornography were uploaded to a cloud storage account under his control in March 2025. The same report states that two cell phones containing additional child pornography files were found in his possession on December 10, 2025.
Files Reportedly Showed Abuse of Very Young Children
Per the outlet's report, attributed to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of New York, the additional files depicted the sexual abuse of children as young as three years old. That detail was tied specifically to the material recovered in December.
A separate statement from the U.S. Department of Justice describes a defendant named James Winston III, age 27, of Utica, New York, saying he allegedly possessed a cell telephone that contained numerous CSAM files. That account differs from the local report both in the age given for Winston, listed elsewhere as 28, and in the number of devices described, with the Justice Department reference citing one cell telephone rather than two. The discrepancies have not been resolved in the available records.
Sex Offender Registration Requirement
Beyond the prison term and supervision period, WKTV reports Winston will be required to register as a sex offender.
