Houstonian sentenced for two child pornography crimes
HOUSTON - A 51-year-old local man has been sentenced following his convictions of possession and distribution of child pornography, U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani announced on Thursday.
U.S. District Court Judge Charles Eskridge sentenced Amado Garcia III to 96 months for each count of distribution and possession of child pornography, which will run concurrently.
Garcia pleaded guilty to the charges back on June 9.
Garcia was also further ordered to serve 10 years on supervised release following the completion of his prison term. He will also have to comply with numerous requirements designed to restrict his access to children and the Internet. He will also be ordered to register as a sex offender.
According to a release, Garcia came to the attention of law enforcement during communications in an online group with participants interested in the sexual abuse of children. In the group, he was found distributing videos of children under the age of 10 being sexually assaulted by adults.
During the investigation, authorities discovered 180 videos and 166 images of child pornography on multiple devices. The images depicted sexual abuse of babies, toddlers and sexual abuse of children involving bondage and sadomasochism.
Garcia was permitted to remain on bond and voluntarily surrender at a later date.
The FBI conducted the investigation into Garcia, officials said.