By Guilermo Contreras
The San Antonio Express-News
SCHERTZ, Texas — A judge on Thursday sentenced a paramedic and another man who pleaded guilty to distributing child pornography to long prison terms, while a hotel manager accused of having images of children being tortured and raped was granted bond.
U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia gave Stephen S. Henry, 28, a former Schertz EMT, the 20-year maximum and later sentenced Brett Tomas Gonzalez, who worked in information technology for RL Foods, to 171/2 years in prison.
Both were caught during investigations by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Henry’s lawyer, Jimmy Parks Jr., sought a sentence of seven years. But the judge turned him down after hearing from the mother of a victim in some of the images and how Henry had altered the images to make them more explicit.
“This significant prison sentence shows how aggressively ICE works to investigate and present for prosecution individuals involved in child pornography crimes,” said Jerry Robinette, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in San Antonio.
Gonzalez’s attorneys, meanwhile, argued for leniency, saying Gonzalez is in treatment for his addictions to child porn and alcoholism. Gonzalez, 29, testified he’s remorseful and has changed.
“I came to understand that they’re real people; they’re not just pixels,” Gonzalez said.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Thompson noted Gonzalez’s porn collection was of infants, and that he also discussed his sexual desires about infants with others who traded pornography.
The sentences highlighted what Phillip Wade Henderson, 51, a general manager of the Holiday Inn near Market Square arrested Wednesday, could face if convicted of distributing images that depicted children bound, gagged and tortured while being sexually assaulted.
Henderson’s lawyer, Van Hilley, stressed in a hearing Thursday that FBI agents uncovered no proof that Henderson had made advances toward children or that he participated in any activities like those depicted in the images.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Nowak granted Henderson release to the custody of his brother on $50,000 bond and electronic monitoring. But Nowak said Henderson must find somewhere else to live besides his home, which is near Alamo Heights High School.
Copyright 2010 San Antonio Express-News