Texas man charged with sexual exploitation of Kingsburg children

FRESNO- A federal grand jury today returned an indictment on four counts. Thomas Henry Lopez, 49, of Spring, Texas, is charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of children, one count of distributing a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct and one count of transmitting obscene material to a minor, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court documents, between June 2024 and July 2024, Lopez contacted two minors in California via TikTok and then communicated with them via text messages and the encrypted application JusTalk. Lopez claimed to be a 12-year-old boy from Texas and solicited the victims to take and send him still images and video footage of themselves engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

While communicating with the victims, Lopez sent them images of adults and minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, as well as images of himself masturbating. Investigators were able to identify Lopez by determining that he was using Internet connections at his residence and at his workplace in Houston, where he was a principal well engineer for an oil and gas company, when he communicated with the victims.

FBI agents arrested Lopez on September 3, 2024, just as he was leaving for a work-related trip to Singapore, and numerous electronic devices were found during a search of his home. He is scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate judge in Houston, Texas, on September 13, 2024.

This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central California Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, primarily the Kingsburg, California Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney David L. Gappa is prosecuting the case.

If convicted, Lopez faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum statutory penalty of 30 years and a fine of up to $250,000 for the child sexual exploitation charges, and a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years and a fine of up to $250,000 for the dissemination of a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. If convicted of transferring obscene material to a minor, Lopez faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

However, any sentence would be determined at the discretion of the court after considering all applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account many variables. The charges are merely allegations; the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.