A 67-year-old conspirator in a Coachella Valley child pornography ring was sentenced Friday to 20 years to life in state prison, but he’ll likely have to complete a nearly two-decade federal term before serving his state sentence.
Noland Anthony Harper of Richmond, Virginia, pleaded guilty in July to five counts of coercing a child to perform lewd acts, three counts of human trafficking, two counts of lewd acts on a child under 14 years old, and one count each of oral copulation of a minor, conspiracy and possession of child porn.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge John Molloy imposed the sentence stipulated by the prosecution and defense.
Harper was sentenced in 2015 to just over 24 years in federal prison based on a separate investigation into the same criminal enterprise by the U.S. Department of Justice.
“This (state sentence) is concurrent to the federal sentence in Virginia, so it will be up to the Board of Prisons how this is served,” District Attorney’s Office Public Information Officer John Hall told City News Service.
“It is possible he will serve the federal first since he was sentenced by them first, then serve his time in California.”
Harper has almost 19 years remaining on his federal term.
Harper is the third defendant sentenced for participation in the porn ring.
In March, 60-year-old William Clyde Thompson of Las Vegas was convicted of 27 felony counts, analogous to the ones to which Harper pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to 106 years to life in state prison. However, like his cohort, Thompson was also convicted in federal court and received 29 years in U.S. prison. He must complete that sentence before his state term kicks in.
Noland, Thompson and John David Yoder, 49, of Desert Hot Springs were all named in the same indictment handed down by a Riverside County grand jury in 2014 in connection with the child porn ring. Another defendant, 35-year-old Erick Alan Monsivais of Los Angeles, was the fourth alleged co-conspirator indicted.
Monsivais is charged with multiple counts of lewd acts and possession of child pornography and is slated to appear for a pretrial hearing on Oct. 4 at the Riverside Hall of Justice. Monsivais remains held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.
Yoder was sentenced in May 2016 to 24 years in state prison.
According to trial testimony, Yoder, a former Palm Springs teacher’s aide, made teenage boys available to himself and the other men at his Desert Hot Springs home, as well as alternate locations in the Coachella Valley.
Prosecutors said the men illegally photographed young boys over the course of two years.
Deputy District Attorney Will Robinson said Yoder leased an apartment which Thompson and the others used to molest boys they met at a local skate park. That apartment became the site of pornographic photo shoots involving local boys, Robinson said.
Yoder’s name also appeared on the registration of the car Thompson drove and on the internet service account Thompson used to sell and distribute photos of scantily clad and naked Desert Hot Springs boys.
Robinson identified Yoder as the ringleader, asserting that “Mr. Yoder’s home was a lion’s den.”
According to federal prosecutors, between 2011 and 2014, Thompson traveled throughout the Las Vegas metropolitan area, in addition to Mohave Valley, Arizona, and Needles, California, where he lured youths to his residence for photo shoots that turned explicit.
Thompson plied the victims, one as young as 10, with alcohol, money, games and other gifts to win their trust, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Using the aliases “Tony Bailor” and “Jason Brock,” Thompson posed as a “scooter sponsor” and claimed to be putting together a team of skateboarders, but his sole intention was to molest and take compromising pictures of children, prosecutors said.
Thompson had some of the youths engage in specific sexual activity while snapping photos and shooting video, according to his plea agreement.
Thompson would advertise the pornography via a web portal, and once visitors made purchases, he would direct them to a second site where they could download the images and videos.