LUBBOCK, Texas - A 54-year-old Lubbock man appeared in federal court today and pleaded guilty to one count of possession of prepubescent child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.
Roberto Garcia, who is on bond, faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine and a lifetime of supervised release. U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings ordered a presentence investigation report with a sentencing date to be set after the completion of that report.
According to plea documents filed in the case, Garcia used a computer at his residence to, among other things, search for images and videos of child pornography. In the course of his searches, Garcia located, downloaded and viewed numerous images and videos constituting child pornography. He saved the material onto the computer’s hard disk drive. Some of the numerous images of child pornography that Garcia saved involved prepubescent minors.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative, which was launched in May 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."
The Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Sucsy is prosecuting.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
