Sulphur Springs Restaurant Owner Guilty of Child Exploitation

PLANO – A jury in federal court in Plano has found a Sulphur Springs man guilty of two counts of distributing and one count of possessing child pornography. The verdict was returned Thursday against 53 year old Fernando Sosa-Pintor. He had been arrested following an undercover investigation by the Longview and garland Police Departments. At his trial, detectives testified that they downloaded videos of child pornography from an IP address that was traced back to Tradicion Mexicana, a restaurant he owned in Sulphur Springs. He now faces up to 20 years in federal prison on each charge. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the U.S. Probation Office.

Members of the Hopkins County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at the restaurant on September 23, 2014, at which time they recovered a desktop computer that contained other child pornography videos. Officers testified during the trial that Sosa-Pintor spoke with them and admitted to using the peer-to-peer file sharing program to obtain child pornography. During the trial, prosecutors introduced evidence from the undercover operations, Sosa-Pintor’s interview with law enforcement, and the contents of his desktop computer.