Carpinteria man sentenced to 135 months in federal prison for child pornography
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – On Monday, Giovanni Gonzalez, 34, was sentenced to 135 months in federal prison for receiving thousands of child sexual abuse videos while he was on parole for a prior conviction for internet-based child sexual exploitation crimes.
The Carpinteria resident was sentenced in the United States District Court for the Central District of California and was also ordered to pay $24,000 in restitution shared the Department of Justice in a press release about Monday's sentencing.
Gonzalez pleaded guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography on Feb. 5 stated the Department of Justice.
"Within days of his release from state prison for despicable acts he committed against children, this defendant returned to his deplorable ways, obtaining thousands of videos showcasing the sexual exploitation of kids," said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. "Protecting our children is central to my office’s mission and we will continue to use all available tools to those who participate in this wicked marketplace that traffics in child abuse."
According to his plea agreement on Dec. 1, 2022, Gonzalez was paroled from California state prison after a sentence of more than 17 years for previously posing as a teenage girl online and coercing at least eight girls into engaging in sex acts and he was also convicted at the time for possessing and sharing child sexual abuse material online.
Later that same month in 2022, Gonzalez sought and began to receive child sexual abuse material from multiple sources, including WhatsApp through his cell phone detailed the Department of Justice.
On Dec. 28, 2022, Gonzalez knowingly received numerous files of child sexual abuse material from a single source through WhatsApp and then saved those files to his cell phone's memory card explained the Department of Justice.
On Jan. 7, 2023, Gonzalez turned his cell phone over to his parole officer as part of his search conditions while on parole stated the Department of Justice.
According to the Department of Justice, following an inspection of Gonzalez's cell phone, about 2,684 videos containing child sexual abuse material that showed several different "prepubescent children engaged in sexually explicit conduct or sexual exploitation of an infant or toddler" were found on his phone.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Santa Maria Police Department investigated this matter with assistance from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation as well as the Ventura County Sheriff's Office.
"Sexual exploitation of children is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our society," said Akil Davis, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office. "This case underscores the FBI's commitment to investigate all offenders who cause harm to our children, and we will ensure these individuals no longer pose a threat to our communities."
