Kearney Man Sentenced to More Than 26 Years for Child Pornography Charges
United States Attorney Lesley A. Woods announced that Paul J. Gray, 51, of Kearney, Nebraska, was sentenced on October 7, 2026, in federal court in Lincoln, Nebraska, for one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. United States District Judge Susan M. Bazis sentenced Gray to a total of 300 months’ imprisonment on the two counts. There is no parole in the federal system. After Gray’s release from prison, he will begin a lifetime term of supervised release. Gray was additionally ordered to pay $5,000 which will contribute to funds established for victims of these types of cases. Gray committed these crimes while he was on supervised release for a federal conviction for failure to register as a sex offender. District Judge Bazis sentenced Gray to 21 months’ imprisonment for violating the terms of his supervised release in that case. His sentences on the two cases were ordered to run consecutive for a total of 321 months’ imprisonment.
Gray is a sex offender who has had several prior convictions. Gray was previously convicted in June of 1996 for two counts of third-degree sexual assault without consent in Lincoln County, Nebraska. Both victims in that case were minors. On March 4, 2008, he was convicted for one count of production of child pornography involving a different minor. He was sentenced to 216 months’ imprisonment with five years of supervised release on that case. Lastly, on April 10, 2024, he was convicted for one count of failure to register as a sex offender and was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment with ten years of supervised release to follow. He began supervised release for that conviction at the end of December 2025.
On August 4, 2025, Gray’s probation officer conducted a visit and search at his apartment in Kearney. The probation officer located an unauthorized smart phone within Gray’s apartment. During a preview of the phone, the probation officer observed sexually explicit files of children. Gray’s unauthorized and authorized phones were seized and provided to the Kearney Police Department who received a search warrant to further examine the devices.
Investigators reviewed the devices. Device data for the unauthorized phone revealed it had been in Gray’s possession since June of 2025. Investigators found more than 7,300 images and more than 80 videos of child pornography on his unauthorized smart phone. In addition to the files, Gray’s web history on that phone contained more than 700 URLs relating to child pornography.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Kearney Police Department.