A San Antonio man was sentenced to four years in prison after he pled guilty today to possession of child pornography.
Nicolas Dovalina, 26, was arrested in June 2020 after a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported Dovalina has visual material he knew showed a child younger than 18 engaging in sexual conduct. At the time of his arrest, Dovalina worked as a pharmacy technician at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio. The investigation did not find any evidence that Dovalina’s crimes involved the hospital. This morning, Dovalina appeared in the 290th District Court where he pled guilty and was sentenced to four years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division.
“This case should serve as a warning to anyone viewing child pornography that your online illegal activity will not stay a secret. No one should consider viewing these horrific images of children being abused as harmless,” said Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales.
This case was prosecuted by Christian Neumann of the Public Integrity and Cyber Crime Division. It was investigated by the Child Exploitation Unit of the Texas Attorney General’s Office’s Southern Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce.
“As these tips come in to the Texas Attorney General’s Child Exploitation Unit, it takes a great deal of effort to identify and investigate the person who downloaded these disturbing images. The Public Integrity and Cyber Crime Division could not successfully prosecute these cases without the work of these investigators,” said Neumann.
Upon his release from prison, Dovalina will have to register as a sex offender for life.