Sacramento Man Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison for Receiving Child Pornography

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Humberto Lozano III, 27, of Sacramento, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller to five years in prison for receiving child pornography, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced. Lozano was ordered to begin serving his sentence on September 2, 2015. On release, he will be required to register as a sex offender.

According to court documents, in March 2013, America Online shut down Lozano’s email account because it had been used to distribute child pornography. AOL reported the account to law enforcement. When law enforcement obtained a search warrant for the email account, a total of 1360 images and 21 videos of child pornography were found. After his account was shut down, Lozano opened an new email account, this time at Yahoo!. He used that account to solicit images of child pornography. Between March 11, 2013, and July 1, 2013, approximately 1,300 images and 30 videos of child pornography were received. Investigators recovered a hard drive in Lozano’s possession and applied computer forensic tools to recover 4,000 deleted images of child pornography and child erotica.

According to the plea agreement, a child was rescued as a result of this investigation. One of the 4,000 deleted images still contained location data. It was of a child subject to sexual abuse in the Netherlands. That information was passed to Dutch law enforcement, who used it to find the child and rescue her from ongoing abuse.

In sentencing, Judge Mueller stated: “They are real victims even if there is no physical contact. There is ongoing trauma by virtue of knowing that the images are out there.”

This case was the product of FBI Child Exploitation Task Force/Innocent Images National Initiative in partnership with the Sacramento Sheriff's Office Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Assistant United States Attorney Matthew D. Segal prosecuted the case.

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 those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. Click on the “resources” tab for information about Internet safety education.