KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A Kansas City, Missouri, resident was sentenced in federal court today for possessing child pornography.
Raul E. Villalva, also known as Isabelle Villalva, a biological male who identifies as a female (transgender woman), 26, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough to 20 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Villalva to 20 years of supervised release following incarceration.
On Oct. 9, 2019, Villalva pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.
In July 2018, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a report from an online file hosting service that a user of the service, later determined to live in the Kansas City area, had uploaded 42 files of child pornography. After further investigation, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Villalva’s residence on Oct. 3, 2018. Villalva disclosed that an adult male with whom he shared the residence had previously sent him, by cell phone, videos and pictures of the adult male sexually assaulting a child victim at the defendant’s residence. Investigators seized Villalva’s cell phone, which contained videos and images of child pornography. Some of the child pornography depicted in Villalva’s cell phone depicted the child victim being molested by the adult male, while a single video depicted Villalva also engaging in sexual contact with the same child victim.
Villalva will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison and will be subject to federal and state sex offender registration requirements, which may apply throughout his life.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Luna. It was investigated by the Western Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, the Platte County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Project Safe Childhood
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 the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
