By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

HAHNVILLE – A former Valero St. Charles refinery official recently pleaded guilty to nine counts of pornography involving juveniles and one count of obstruction of justice stemming from a November arrest by St. Charles deputies.

James Ronald Guillory, an active community volunteer and the longtime human resources and public affairs director for the Valero St. Charles refinery, was sentenced in St. Charles Parish Court Friday to two years in prison on each count to run concurrently without the benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. He also must pay a $2,500 fine and court costs and register as a sex offender.

Guillory, 58, of Luling was arrested in November after an undercover investigation by the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office Cyber Crimes Unit and multiple other law enforcement agencies. The investigation revealed that between January and March 2011, Guillory allegedly downloaded and electronically shared child pornography on his home computer.

In May 2011, the Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at Guillory’s residence, and deputies seized two desktop computers and one laptop, all belonging to Guillory. A forensic examination of the computers uncovered known images of child pornography on the laptop.

Prior to the issuing of the search warrant, Guillory observed investigators outside his home and questioned why they were there.

On that same day, it was determined by authorities that Guillory attempted to use a program known as “Evidence Eliminator,” which destroys evidence from a computer’s hard drive, resulting in the obstruction of justice charge, according to the investigation.

Several more files with names strongly suggestive of child pornography were discovered on all three computers, but the file contents could not be recovered, authorities said.