HSI Dallas probe leads to 6-year prison sentence for Texas man guilty of child sexual exploitation
DALLAS — A Denton County man was sentenced to six years in federal prison for child exploitation violations in the Eastern District of Texas, announced Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Dallas Special Agent in Charge Lester R. Hayes Jr. and U.S. Attorney Damien M. Diggs for the Eastern District of Texas on June 30.
Michael Ray Guillory, 67, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant.
“This defendant preyed on innocent children without regard for the long-lasting harm his actions would cause,” Hayes said. “HSI will never relent in our commitment to identifying and prosecuting those who exploit and victimize children.”
According to court documents, law enforcement officials discovered that Guillory was chatting with a 13-year-old child on an online social media platform. His messages were sexually charged and included descriptions of sex acts he wanted to perform when meeting the child in person, as well as numerous pornographic images and videos depicting the sex acts he described.
Officials also discovered that Guillory engaged in similar chats with other suspected minors. He is a registered sex offender in Denton County due to prior convictions for solicitation of a minor to commit sexual assault and possession of child pornography.
“Through social media platforms, predators like this defendant have access to our children’s bedrooms from anywhere in the country,” said Diggs. “Repeat offenders like Mr. Guillory demonstrate an unwillingness or inability to stop committing these crimes, further contributing to the trauma already inflicted on child victims. Today’s sentence demonstrates the commitment of both state and federal law enforcement to make our children safer by ensuring that dangerous repeat offenders like Mr. Guillory are in prison where they belong.”
Guillory pleaded guilty to two counts of transferring obscene material to minors and was sentenced to six years imprisonment on each count. He will serve the sentences concurrently.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States attorneys’ offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit ProjectSafeChildhood.gov
HSI investigated this case with assistance from the Denton Police Department and the West Jordan (Utah) Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa J. Miller prosecuted.
HSI is the principal investigative arm of DHS, responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel, and finance move. HSI’s workforce of more than 8,700 employees consists of more than 6,000 special agents assigned to 237 cities throughout the United States, and 93 overseas locations in 56 countries. HSI’s international presence represents DHS’s largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.
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