An Excelsior Springs, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court for possessing and attempting to distribute child pornography.
Gabriel Valencia, Jr., 27, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs to 10 years in federal prison without parole.
On Nov. 30, 2018, Valencia pleaded guilty to attempting to distribute child pornography over the internet and to possessing child pornography.
The investigation began when another person admitted to possessing and distributing images of child pornography, chatting online with like-minded individuals, and ultimately giving Valencia the password to a cloud-based storage site containing child pornography images. A federal agent, acting in an undercover capacity, contacted Valencia. On Sept. 22, 2016, Valencia sent the undercover agent a video of child pornography.
On Oct. 3, 2016, members of the FBI Cybercrimes Task Force executed a search warrant at Valencia’s residence. Officers seized two laptop computers, a mini tablet, and two cell phones, one of which contained a 4GB micro sim card. One of the laptop computers had contained approximately 300 images of child pornography. The sim card contained 606 images of child pornography and six videos of child pornography.
One of the cell phones had thousands of chat messages, including dozens of chats in which Valencia engaged in sexually explicit conversations with numerous individuals, many of whom claimed to be under the age of 18. Valencia asked for and received, explicit photos on numerous occasions, sometimes posing as a teenage female. In one of his Skype messages, Valencia stated, “with the type of porn I look at I could go to prison for the rest of my life.”
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David A. Barnes. It was investigated by the FBI.
