A 24-year-old Chula Vista man has pleaded guilty to possessing images on his computer of minors who were engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
Kevin Arce will be sentenced on March 25 by U.S. District Court Judge Janis Sammartino. The maximum sentence is 20 years in federal prison, but court documents say he will be facing a much lower term.
Arce admitted to possessing between 300 to 600 images on his computer. A consequence of the guilty plea is that he will have to register as a sex offender after he finishes his sentence, according to his plea agreement.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a clearinghouse for tips on this subject, received tips that Arce’s email address and IP number were associated with receiving child pornography in 2014. They forwarded those tips to law enforcement.
A subpoena request to AT&T was served in October that year and federal agents went to his Chula Vista apartment Jan. 8, 2015. Arce was interviewed at his place of employment later that day and he initially denied downloading child pornography. He read the search warrant and admitted to agents he had downloaded “some” photos from two websites.
Arce remains free on $25,000 bond with the condition that a computer monitoring program is on any computer he uses.
