Albuquerque Man Sentenced to Thirty Years in Federal Prison for Producing Child Pornography

ALBUQUERQUE – U.S. Attorney Damon P. Martinez and Carol K.O. Lee, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Albuquerque Division, announced that Antonio Gutierrez, 44, of Albuquerque, N.M., was sentenced today to 30 years in federal prison for his conviction on three production of child pornography charges.  After he completes his prison sentence, Gutierrez will be on supervised release for five years and will be required to register as a sex offender.  Gutierrez also was ordered to pay $14,060 in restitution to the victim of his criminal conduct.

Gutierrez was arrested in Aug. 2012, based on a criminal complaint alleging that he induced a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography.  Gutierrez subsequently was charged with three counts of production of child pornography in a superseding indictment alleging that he committed the offenses between Aug. 2011 and Nov. 2011 in Bernalillo County, N.M.  

Gutierrez was convicted on all three charges in the superseding indictment on Jan. 27, 2014, after a five-day jury trial.  The evidence at trial established that Gutierrez gave the victim a cellphone in May 2011, on her 16th birthday, and told her that he would pay for the first month of service.  In June 2011, Gutierrez told the victim that he would pay the cellphone service bill if she repaid him with nude photographs of herself, and the victim used her cellphone to take two photographs of herself without clothes and sent the images to Gutierrez’s cellphone.  This began a monthly cycle of Gutierrez refusing to pay for the victim’s cellphone service unless she provided him with nude photographs of herself.  With each passing month, Gutierrez escalated the nature and extent of the sexual conduct in which the victim was required to engage when photographed.

In Nov. 2011, after the victim reported Gutierrez’s unlawful conduct to the Albuquerque Police Department, officers executed a search warrant at Gutierrez’s residence and seized computers, computer-related media and cellphones.  A subsequent forensic examination of Gutierrez’s personal computer revealed many sexually explicit photographs, including sexually explicit photographs of the victim taken by Gutierrez.  Gutierrez testified in his own defense and denied that he produced any child pornography.  Gutierrez also claimed that he did not know how the child pornography ended up on his computer.

This case was investigated by the Albuquerque office of the FBI, the Albuquerque Police Department and the New Mexico Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jennifer M. Rozzoni and Marisa A. Lizarraga prosecuted the case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and DOJ’s Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.

The case also was brought as a part of the New Mexico Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force’s mission, which is to locate, track, and capture Internet child sexual predators and Internet child pornographers in New Mexico.  There are 75 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies associated with the New Mexico ICAC Task Force, which is funded by a grant administered by the NMAGO.  Anyone with information relating to suspected child predators and suspected child abuse is encouraged to contact federal or local law enforcement.