A San Antonio man was sentenced to six years in prison after he pled guilty Monday to two indictments for possession of child pornography in the 226th Judicial District Court, Judge Velia Meza presiding.
Jose Villarreal, 34, was arrested in November 2020 after a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported that a Microsoft Skype user uploaded child sexual abuse material to another user through the Skype communication application. Villarreal, who used the alias “David Villarreal” online, confessed to downloading and sharing the child sexual abuse material with users he met through the Reddit forum website. Villarreal’s e-mail account, phone number, and IP address all linked him to the sharing of the contraband material as reported by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
“This case should serve as a warning to parents to be vigilant about their children’s online activities. These predators are using legal digital platforms to meet each other and then to commit these horrible crimes. We must never forget that each of these images or videos shared depicts a child being abused and then shared online where it likely lives on long after people like this defendant have been caught and sentenced,” said District Attorney Joe Gonzales.
This case was prosecuted by Christian Neumann and Oscar Salinas, Assistant District Attorneys in the Public Integrity and Cyber Crime Division. It was investigated by the Child Exploitation Unit of the Texas Attorney General’s Office Southern Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce.