Mugshot of An older man with gray hair and glasses wearing a blue denim jacket and a plaid shirt, standing in front of a light-colored brick wall.

Atlanta, Texas, sex offender, 86, sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for child pornography

TEXARKANA, Texas – An 86-year-old Atlanta, Texas, man who was on probation and registered as a sex offender when investigators found child pornography on his phone was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in federal prison, the maximum for the charge.

U.S. District Judge Robert W. Schroeder III sentenced J.C. Herndon to 120 months on one count of possession of child pornography in the Texarkana Division of the Eastern District of Texas, U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs announced Thursday.

Court records show Herndon’s guilty plea, a competency hearing and his sentencing all took place at a single hearing Oct. 8. The judgment was entered the same day, and an order of forfeiture followed Friday.

According to information presented in court, investigators with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office and the Texas Department of Public Safety Criminal Investigations Division executed a search warrant at Herndon’s home in Atlanta on May 6, 2025, and seized a cell phone holding numerous photos and videos of child pornography, many of them depicting prepubescent children, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Herndon admitted downloading and viewing the images on his phone, prosecutors said. He was a registered sex offender on probation at the time.

Herndon was arrested Dec. 12 and made his first federal court appearance the same day, as TXKtoday reported. He faced up to 10 years on the possession charge, and a revocation of his state probation could add time at the state level.

The Texas DPS sex offender registry lists a 2008 conviction for indecency with a child by exposure involving a 16-year-old girl and a 2023 conviction for attempted indecency with a child by exposure involving a 12-year-old boy. Herndon had been registered in Cass County since April 2024.

There is no parole in the federal system.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Richards as part of Project Safe Childhood, a Justice Department initiative aimed at child sexual exploitation.