Crimes against Children II 6-15-12

Dallas, TX
Ernest Mata, 27, of Dallas, was sentenced yesterday afternoon by U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle to 210 months in federal prison and a lifetime of supervised release, following his guilty plea in January 2012 to a felony information charging one count of transporting and shipping child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas. Mata has been in custody since his arrest by special agents with the FBI in December 2011.

According to documents filed in the case, FBI agents executed a search warrant at Mata’s residence in Dallas on December 20, 2011 and seized a desktop computer that he used that contained child pornography. Mata admitted he had been viewing child pornography since he was approximately 12-years-old and that he knowingly received and transported images of child pornography via peer-to-peer file sharing software and e-mail. He further admitted that he also searched for child pornography on Google and other search engines and websites. He admitted having 1,000 images and 100 videos of child pornography that included images of prepubescent minors and material that portrayed sadistic and/or masochistic conduct.

This matter 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 U.S. Attorneys’ 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 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.”