Two Men Convicted in Unrelated Cases for Distributing Child Porn Sentenced to Lengthy Prison Sentences

LUBBOCK, Texas — Two men who were convicted in unrelated cases on child pornography offenses have been sentenced to lengthy federal prison sentences by Senior U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

Ambrose Ledezma, 24, of San Angelo, Texas, was sentenced last week to 135 months in federal prison. Ledezma pleaded guilty in December 2016 to one count of distributing child pornography. Ledezma was remanded to custody following his sentencing hearing. According to documents filed in his case, Ledezma used Kik, an instant messenger software application that operates over the Internet, to send and receive messages. On April 15, 2015, Ledezma used Kik to distribute two images of child pornography to a Kik group named “Only For Kid Porn.” Each of the images distributed to this group by Ledezma depicts a minor prepubescent female engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Ledezma had obtained these images over the Internet by searching for images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case.

Cody Brett Wilcox, 26, of Lubbock, Texas, was also sentenced last week to 188 months in federal prison. Wilcox pleaded guilty in December 2016 to one count of distributing child pornography. He has been in custody since his arrest in November 2016. According to documents filed in his case, Wilcox, using Kik, located a person who had posted that he was looking for “dads into incest, taboo, etc.” Wilcox contacted this person and messaged with him from October 20, 2016, through October 26, 2016. During the communications, Wilcox informed the other person that he had a lot of child pornography and that he traded the material on a regular basis. Wilcox sent the other person five images of child pornography. The images depicted prepubescent minor females engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The Lubbock Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated this case.

These cases were brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the 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 sexually exploit children, and identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/. For more information about internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/ and click on the tab “resources.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Sucsy prosecuted both cases.

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