Odessa Man Sentenced to 15 Years in Federal Prison for Distribution of Child Pornography

In Midland, 59-year-old Ramon Hilario was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for distributing child pornography over the Internet from his residence in Odessa, Texas, announced United States Attorney Robert Pitman. During sentencing today, United States District Judge Robert A. Junell also ordered that Hilario be placed under supervised release for a period of 15 years after completing his prison term.

On July 19, 2012, Ramon Hilario pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of material involving the depiction of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. By pleading guilty, Hilario admitted that on February 17, 2012, a detective with the New Zealand Police (the national police force of New Zealand), acting in an undercover capacity, utilized a publicly available peer-to-peer file sharing program to access and download approximately 30 child pornography images that Hilario made available from his computer in Odessa. Hilario further admitted that his computer contained more than 600 images of child pornography, some of which involved images of a sadistic or masochistic nature. Indeed, Hilario, as part of his plea, admitted that some of the images involved children as young as 4 years old being sexually abused by adults.

This investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New Zealand Police. Assistant United States Attorney Austin M. Berry prosecuted this case on behalf of the United States.