A former ISU student was sentenced Friday to three years and 10 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Ronald Longstaff in a case involving child pornography.

Jason Lighthall, 21, of Altoona, pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of materials depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and one count of receipt of the pornographic materials.

Lighthall’s attorney, Paul Scott of Clive, said he was “not surprised” by the judge’s sentence.

“We’re pleased that the judge agreed with some of the grounds for departure,” Scott said. “He received a lower sentence than the guidelines provided.”

According to Daily staff reports, Lighthall was arrested in May of 2002 after being suspected of having more than 7,000 images and three gigabytes of movies depicting child pornography on his campus computer. He was a freshman in aerospace engineering at the time.

“I apologize to the court for my inappropriate behavior that resulted in my being here today,” Lighthall told the court, as reported by The Associated Press.

Scott sought probation, saying his client was obsessive-compulsive and suffered from attention-deficit disorder. He said Lighthall would benefit more from treatment than imprisonment.

“Clearly, he has shown drastic changes in lifestyle,” Scott told The AP.

He no longer spends his life in front of a computer and no longer is drawn to the dark recesses of his bedroom, his dorm room, interacting with others only by computer.”

Scott said Lighthall will continue to seek rehabilitation.

“He’s going to continue going to rehabilitation and do everything exactly like he has been,” Scott said. “And on the judge’s recommendation, he will likely go to a medical facility in Rochester, Minnesota.”

Longstaff agreed Lighthall suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder because he continued to view the illegal images after he was caught and knew he faced serious penalties.

“This is one of the strongest cases I’ve seen,” Longstaff said.

— The Associated Press contributed to this article.