A San Antonio man was sentenced in a federal court in San Antonio to 136 months in prison and 20 years supervised release for receipt of child pornography.
According to court documents, Marlon Zurita, 47, stored more than three dozen files containing child sexual abuse material on his online storage accounts. A search warrant executed by Department of Homeland Security Investigations agents led to the seizure of 18 electronic devices, 11 of which were determined to contain child sexual abuse material (CSAM) Zurita had downloaded from the internet. Between Jan.1, 2020 and Sept. 24, 2020, Zurita had downloaded over 3,000 video files and over 39,000 images depicting the sexual abuse and exploitation of prepubescent children. Zurita pleaded guilty to the charge on Dec. 22, 2022.
In addition to the prison sentence, Judge Xavier Rodriguez ordered Zurita to pay $90,000 restitution and forfeit the 11 electronic devices that contained CSAM.
“This individual sought out and stored child sexual abuse material, further victimizing minors by enabling the production of child sexual abuse material,” said U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza for the Western District of Texas. “Thanks to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and with our agency partners at Homeland Security Investigations leading many of these investigations, we are able to prosecute predators who cause unfathomable harm to the lives of innocent children.”
“This sentence sends a clear message that there are serious consequences for those individuals who exploit children.” said Special Agent in Charge Craig Larrabee for the HSI San Antonio Division. “We remain committed to working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and our law enforcement partners to aggressively pursue those who victimize our children.”
