Carpinteria man returns to prison for child pornography crimes

A Carpinteria man serving a prison sentence for child pornography is returning to state prison.

The U.S. Department of Justice said Giovanni Gonzalez, 34, was sentenced Monday to more than 11 years in prison for receiving child sexual abuse (CSAM) videos.

According to the Justice Department, Gonzalez received the images just a month after he was paroled from state prison for crimes related to online child sexual exploitation.

He was previously sentenced to more than 17 years in prison for “posing online as a teenage girl and forcing at least eight underage female victims to perform sexual acts and sending him the images, as well as possessing and sharing sexually degrading material online,” according to the Justice Department. He was released on probation on Dec. 1, 2022.

Later that month, the Justice Department said Gonzalez “sought and began receiving child sexual material from sources, including one on WhatsApp” on his cellphone. When his probation officer searched his phone in January 2023, officials said more than 2,600 videos containing child sexual material were found.

“Within days of his release from state prison for the despicable acts he committed against children, this defendant returned to his deplorable behavior, obtaining thousands of videos depicting the sexual exploitation of children,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a press release. “Protecting our children is essential to my office’s mission, and we will continue to use all available resources against those who participate in this perverse marketplace that traffics in child abuse.”

The case against Gonzalez was investigated by the Santa Maria Police Department and the FBI, with assistance from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.

“The sexual exploitation of children is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our society,” Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said in the news release. “This case underscores the FBI’s commitment to investigating all offenders who harm our children, and we will ensure that these individuals no longer pose a threat to our communities.”

In addition to a new prison sentence, Gonzalez, who reportedly pleaded guilty in February to receiving child pornography, was also ordered to pay $24,000 in restitution.