In El Paso, 33-year-old Nickolias Sauceda was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for producing child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney John F. Bash and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent in Charge Jack P. Staton, El Paso.
Yesterday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone sentenced Sauceda to the prison term followed by a lifetime of supervised release.
On May 5, 2018, HSI agents executed a search warrant at Saucedo’s residence and seized several home computers, related media and cell phones. A subsequent forensics examination of the seized materials revealed the presence of hundreds of videos and images depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit activity. Three of the videos discovered were produced by the defendant while he was having sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old female. On February 6, 2019, Sauceda pleaded guilty to the child pornography production charge.
“This case is another nightmarish example of a person recording his sexual brutalization of a child. I am proud that our office continues to fight this wave of child abuse," stated U.S. Attorney Bash.
“This sentence-essentially a life sentence-exemplifies the type of heinous crimes committed against the most vulnerable among us," said Jack P. Staton, special agent in charge of HSI El Paso. “Taking child predators off the streets is part of HSI’s mission, and we will continue to target them and use our authority and technical expertise to keep them from victimizing children."
HSI agents in El Paso conducted this investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mallory Rasmussen prosecuted this case on behalf of the Government.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ 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 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.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
