Mesquite Man Sentenced to 10 Years in Federal Prison for Possessing Child Pornography

DALLAS—Robert Gonzales, 22, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay to 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty in September 2011 to an information charging one count of possession of child pornography. In addition, Judge Lindsay ordered that Gonzales serve a lifetime of supervised release following his incarceration. Gonzales must surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on March 6, 2012. Today’s announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.

According to documents filed in the case, on February 14, 2011, Gonzales possessed and distributed more than 300 files containing child pornography to an undercover officer via the Internet. When a search warrant was executed at Gonzales’s home in Mesquite, Texas in April 2011, special agents with the FBI seized the laptop computer that contained those images. Gonzales admitted that he downloaded the images and videos of child pornography found on his laptop from the Internet.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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 www.projectsafechildhood.gov

The case was investigated by the FBI and the Plano, Texas Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Camille Sparks was in charge of the prosecution.