COEUR d'ALENE - A Coeur d'Alene man was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in jail, with eligibility for parole after 13 months, for the possession of child pornography.

John Provenzano pleaded guilty in Kootenai County First District Court, to the possession of thousands of files of child pornography in July. According to character witnesses called by the defense, Provenzano, who was born in 1979 and holds multiple degrees in economics, was an honor student who was always studying while in college. His grandfather told the court Provenzano took care of his grandmother after she was diagnosed with cancer so he could continue to work, and called him a "good boy."

"Good people do horrible things sometimes and that's what happened here," Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Studor said. "Treatment, while appropriate and needed, is only one component. Punishment is absolutely necessary. This is something that went on for years - he knew it was wrong and continued to do it in spite of that fact."

Provenzano's defense attorney argued against jail time by stating that he is not a predator and is not a risk to the community.

"I know what I did was wrong," Provenzano said in court Wednesday. "One thing this ordeal has done is showed me I have a serious problem."

Prior to giving his sentence on the case, Judge Benjamin Simpson told Provenzano that as a result of his behavior, his life was "already fundamentally changed." Simpson added he himself had viewed a portion of the child porn downloaded by Provenzano and said those images were "horrendous" and are "burned into my brain."

"This isn't a casual 'I tripped over it and looked at it a few months' type of deal," Simpson said.

Simpson cited the "sheer number of images" Provenzano had downloaded and safety of the community as his primary reasons for going forward with a jail sentence.

"I want to make absolutely sure you never commit an offense like this again," Simpson said.

Provenzano moved to Idaho from Nevada in 2012, to work with a friend at a newly opened trading card store in Coeur d'Alene.

Shortly after the move, Provenzano began using the Ares peer-to-peer network to download sexually explicit videos and images of children as young as 5 and in November, law enforcement began investigating his online activity.

The initial investigation found 81 "files of interest," including a partially downloaded video depicting a 5-year-old girl. Using this information, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Provenzano's residence in an apartment complex near Lake City High School and Skyview Elementary School.

Provenzano was at his apartment when the search was conducted and spoke with an investigator.

"Provenzano admitted to intentionally downloading child pornography and possessing between 100 and 200 videos and images," Studor said.

At the residence law enforcement officials took a computer and external hard drive - finding 23 photographs and two videos containing child pornography.

These files were in a folder on Provenzano's external hard drive entitled "Good" and a forensic scan of the drive, conducted by Detective Mark Goodwin, found more than 2,000 pornographic photos and approximately 100 videos.

"Among the 2,100 odd files, Detective Goodwin located 921 known child pornographic photos and videos stored in the 'Good' folder," Studor said. "Detective Goodwin and Investigator Paul Farina viewed 'hundreds' of the photos and videos, which depicted children between the ages of 2 and 16 years of age engaged in everything from erotic nudity to sexually graphic bondage videos. The majority of the images and videos depicted girls and many were engaged in graphic sexual contact with adult men."

Although Provenzano did not have any prior offenses, Studor recommended 15 years of imprisonment in this case - primarily due to the amount of child pornography that was in Provenzano's possession. According to Studor, the fact that he does not have any prior offenses makes his "risk level" even more difficult to assess.

"Society expects punishment in cases like this," Studor said. "The defendant possessed sexually graphic videos of children as young as 5 being raped by their abusers. These were not simply some underage girls in sexual acts or photos and videos of 16 or 17-year-old girls on the border of legal age. In fact, the majority of the videos possessed by Provenzano depicted victims 12 years old or younger. In doing so, he re-victimized children so that he could satisfy some abhorrent prurient interest."