Abilene Man Sentenced To 10 Years In Federal Prison For Possessing Child Pornography

LUBBOCK, Texas — Reymundo Alejandro Sanchez, 21, of Abilene, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings to 10 years in federal prison, following his guilty plea in October 2014 to one count of possession of child pornography. The announcement was made today by John Parker, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.

According to plea documents filed in the case, Sanchez used his cell phone to communicate with several persons using a mobile application called Kik, as well as through Facebook and other means. Many of those persons identified themselves to Sanchez as minors.

Sanchez engaged many of those persons in sexually oriented communication, which often included Sanchez sending one or more sexually explicit images of himself. In exchange, Sanchez sometimes received images or videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. One example of such child pornography was a video that Sanchez received on approximately April 30, 2014, which depicted a female minor, under age 18, engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Sanchez’s pretrial release was revoked earlier this month when the Court found that he had violated conditions of his release.

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 Abilene Police Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Sucsy prosecuted.