California Man Guilty of Child Porn Possession

A 20-year-old man from Lakeside, California, has pleaded guilty to a federal child pornography charge in New Mexico. Joshua Adam Williams was arrested in November 2015 and has been in custody ever since. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Williams will serve 10 years in prison followed by a 15-year term of supervised release. He will also be required to register as a sex offender after completing his prison sentence.

Williams was a cadet at the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, New Mexico, when he committed the crimes in May 2015. The investigation into Williams began in August 2014, when a father reported to the FBI that his minor child had been producing and sharing child pornography online.

A subsequent investigation revealed that Williams was the subscriber to an account that had been sharing child pornography. Search warrants were obtained for Williams’ computers, cellphone, and other digital media, which were found to contain videos and images consistent with child pornography.

During his guilty plea, Williams admitted to possessing a computer and cellular telephone that contained videos and images of child pornography. The plea agreement states that Williams’ computer contained a video of a toddler being sexually molested by an adult and his cellular phone contained approximately 100 videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Williams remains in custody pending his sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled. In his plea agreement, Williams agreed to pay $210,012 in restitution to any victim associated with the charges identified in the criminal complaint who requests restitution prior to the sentencing hearing.

The case was investigated by the Roswell office of the FBI, New Mexico State Police, New Mexico Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, and the New Mexico Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory with assistance from the FBI in San Diego, California, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa A. Lizarraga is prosecuting the case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the DOJ to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.