MINNEAPOLIS – A 40-year-old Zimmerman man who was using so much computer power that he and his parents were using the heat from the computers to warm their home in one of the coldest winters in recent Minnesota history has been sentenced to 21 years in prison for distribution and possession of child pornography.

Levi Wayne Burns admitted in court earlier this summer to possessing the child pornography and was then found guilty in a jury trial in June to distributing child porn. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz on Thursday.

According to the defendant’s guilty plea and as proven at trial, in January 2014 Burns shared via a peer-to-peer computer network several files containing videos of child pornography, including a video depicting two female children between the ages of 10 and 14 engaged in sexual acts. Burns, who lived in the basement of his parents’ home in Sherburne County, operated an extensive computer system and related equipment, which is why such heat was being generated.

Burns was already a convicted sex offender as he had been convicted in 2005 in Sherburne County for criminal sexual conduct in the third degree for engaging in sexual acts with a 15-year-old female.

Burns was also serve 10 years of supervised release after his prison term.

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