A judge with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas sentenced a Houston-area child predator Feb. 9 to 80 years in federal prison for two counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of distribution of child pornography following an investigation conducted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Houston.
Xavier Jay Reyes, 26, pleaded guilty to the charges Aug. 15.
Reyes was also sentenced to 10 years of supervised release. During that time, he must comply with numerous requirements designed to restrict his access to children and the internet. Restitution will be decided at a later date.
In imposing the sentence, the court also considered numerous impact statements from the exploited child victims Reyes used to create the child pornography he possessed in his collection.
In 2020, during an undercover online child pornography investigation, law enforcement discovered Reyes was producing and sharing images and videos of a minor female child engaging in sexually explicit conduct. The produced material included images and videos depicting Reyes engaging in violent, coercive and degrading abuse of the minor female victim.
A search warrant led to the discovery that Reyes abused and exploited at least two minor female victims for over a year. Reyes ultimately admitted to abusing at least one child victim. Additionally, authorities discovered a collection of 907 images and 781 videos containing child pornography.
Reyes will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sherin Daniel and Luis Batarse prosecuted the case.
For more news and information on HSI’s efforts to combat child exploitation and child pornography in Southeast Texas follow us on Twitter @HSIHouston.
