News Releases and Statements

Gabriel Espinoza, 40, from San Antonio, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia to 360 months in prison, to be followed by 40 years of supervised release.

Such was the crime HSI special agents discovered in February 2013 at the home of Jeff Clouse, 45 of Conyers, Georgia, who had hundreds of child pornography and videos on his computer, including live streamed video of a woman from the Philippines performing sexual acts on her minor daughters, ages six and eight, and taking direction from Clouse.

Patrick Newman, 33, of Louisville, was previously charged in a criminal complaint and then in a felony information.

Luis Vasquez-Sanchez, 34, living in Grand Prairie, Texas, has been in custody since his arrest in January on a related federal criminal complaint. He will be referred for deportation proceedings after he serves his prison sentence.

According to testimony presented at trial, on the night of July 20, 2014, Jean Roussel Eloi, 30, of Palm Bay, started an online chat session with an 11-year-old girl who lived in Palm Bay. The next day, the girl reported the chats to her mother.

John Robert Camp, 24, was sentenced Aug. 18 by Senior U.S. District Judge Hayden Head to 60 months in federal prison to be immediately followed by 10 years of supervised release.

Jose Fernando Cardenas-Lira, 52, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Hayden Head to 84 months in prison, to be followed by 10 years of supervised release. In handing down the sentence, Judge Head stated that, “children deserve to be provided protection of the law and this sentence is intended to do just that.” Cardenas-Lira pleaded guilty to the charges in May.

Specifically, Paul Joseph Koestle, 33, of Abilene, Texas, who remains in custody, pleaded guilty to one count of producing child pornography and one count of receiving child pornography.

Robert Lawrence Noll, 40, of Brownwood, Texas, who had been on pretrial release, was ordered to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons Sept. 18. Noll was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $27,500.

Jose Lopez-Vega, 34, was arrested without incident at his place of residence. His arrest stemmed from an HSI investigation that revealed that he allegedly used a peer-to-peer (P2P) network to download sexually explicit images depicting child pornography.

Justin Benedict Morales, 40, of San Angelo, who remains in custody, faces a statutory penalty of not less than five years nor more than 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. A sentencing date was not set.

John Everette Murdock, 70, of Lubbock, Texas, who remains on bond, faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. A sentencing date was not set.

Michael Thomas Franks, 43, of Brownwood, Texas, who remains on bond, faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. A sentencing date was not set.

In August 2014, HSI special agents arrested Denis Victor Courchesne, 46, of Alberta, Canada, at the Luis Muniz International Airport when he arrived in San Juan from Panama City, Panama, and CBP officers found child pornography in some of the electronic equipment he carried.

An investigation revealed that Internet Protocol addresses associated with Robert Beattie, 55, of the 400 block of Desiree Drive had been active in disseminating child pornography.

Cesar Estuardo Hernandez-Cruz, 28, pleaded guilty Aug. 4 to producing child pornography before U.S. District Judge Marcia Crone. Hernandez-Cruz was indicted by a federal grand jury June 3.

The complaint alleges Christina Cortez, 38, produced graphic child pornography images while working at a daycare facility in Corpus Christi, and that she further distributed them to Matthew Harbin, 29, of Brownsville.

Gongloff, 25, originally from Terra Alta, West Virginia, produced numerous images depicting nude minors and minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Through public outreach, HSI special agents identified the child victim.

Kenneth Gaylord Stokes, 71, a U.S. citizen who resided near the city of Cebu in the Philippines, was sentenced to 120 years in federal prison without parole.

Under the terms of his plea agreement, Richard J. Dates, from Grants, New Mexico, faces being sentenced to five to 12 years in federal prison followed by not less than five years of supervised release.

HSI special agents arrested Manuel Fernandez-Gonzalez, 19, at the Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport when he was about to board a plane to the Dominican Republic. The arrest took placed without incident.

In December 2014, HSI special agents executed a search warrant at the residence of Sean Patrick Mciver, 28 and seized various electronic devices. HSI special agents using peer-to-peer software were able to successfully download various files containing child pornography from an Internet Protocol address that was associated to Mciver.

Rogelio “Roger” Cordero, 58, of New Castle, Delaware, will also be required to continue to register as a sex offender in any jurisdiction in which he lives, works or attends school.

Rickie Sitler previously pleaded guilty to using a four-year-old child to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing images, admitting to committing the crime between late November and early December 2014.

Jeremiah R. Malfroid, 34, of Hilliard, Ohio pleaded guilty to production of child pornography on April 2, 2015.