GARLAND - A 57-year-old Garland contractor whose computer loaded with child pornography was found dumped in a church trash bin was sentenced Friday to nine years in federal prison.
U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn ordered that William McBurney will have to register as a sex offender for life after his release, officials said. He pleaded guilty May 25 to a charge of receipt of child pornography. He reports to prison Nov. 2.
In February 2009, McBurney threw a computer and hard drives in a bin near Eastern Hills Baptist Church in Garland. A church employee found it and turned it over to Garland police. The North Texas Regional Computer Forensics Lab found 250,000 child porn images and videos.
When police questioned him, McBurney turned over more images on an additional laptop computer, tower, CDs and a thumb drive that were in his home. He also led them to an offsite storage facility where he had more electronics containing child pornography, officials said. Detectives also found books and CDs containing images of nude children. Some of the images were of girls as young as 11.
McBurney told investigators that he viewed and downloaded child pornography in a Starbucks parking lot because it had open wireless access.
