Tyler man arrested for trading child pornography

TYLER – Our news partner KETK reports that a man was arrested on July 1 in Tyler after admitting to a predator-catcher organization that he had videos and pictures of children being sexually assaulted on his phone.

According to a Smith County arrest affidavit, around 5:40 p.m., deputies responded to 4373 Gallion Circle, where a private organization, EDP Watch, used a decoy to locate a possible child predator attempting to meet with a 12-year-old girl. The organization said they used a decoy that posed as a 12-year-old girl to communicate with the suspect, Joel Gaona, and that they were set to meet him, but he didn’t show up.

The document explained that EDP Watch then went to Gaona’s home, and videoed the interaction in which he admitted to having child pornography on his phone. Goana gave his phone to the organization after he was told they had software that would erase everything off of it.

According to the affidavit, a Smith County deputy then took Gaona aside and asked him questions about the child pornography, which Gaona admitted he did have child pornography on his phone. The deputy noted that Gaona had two cell phones, on which he admitted to watching and trading child pornography videos.

Gaona was then transported to the Smith County Sheriff’s Office, where he was interviewed about what was on his phones. During the search of the phone, a detective came across an application named ‘session’, which had at least 20 videos and pictures of children of various ages being sexually assaulted.

Gaona was arrested for possession of child pornography with intent to promote, and is being held on a $1 million bond at the Smith County Jail.