Friday, Oct. 4, 2019 | 6:45 p.m.
A man twice convicted for sex crimes against minors in Southern California was sentenced Friday in Las Vegas for possessing hundreds of images of child pornography, according to the office of the U.S. attorney for the district of Nevada.
Gilbert Davila Jr., 56, was given a 20-year prison term after being found guilty in April on one count of possession of child pornography, officials said. He faces lifetime supervision after he’s released from federal prison.
Metro Police arrested Davila in February 2018, according to federal court documents. The investigation kicked off six months earlier after Google tipped off the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about child porn being transmitted through its servers.
Using his email address, investigators tracked down Davila’s apartment in the 4600 block of East Lake Mead Boulevard, near Marion Drive, around the corner from a Las Vegas elementary school.
Davila was not home when SWAT forced entry on Feb. 13, 2018, but spoke with investigators on the phone, court documents show. He agreed to meet with them but never showed up.
It wasn’t until later that day that he was interviewed at a separate location. After waiving his right to remain silent, Davila admitted to having “a problem,” saying that he’d been viewing child pornography for four to five years, according to his criminal complaint. He said he had an addiction to methamphetamine.
Davila spoke about his 1987 and 2005 convictions out of San Diego for sex crimes against a child, the complaint said.
Out of prison, Davila was ordered to enroll in sex offender programs, stating that “these classes and therapy made him listen to other predators share their stories, which ultimately piqued his curiosity” for child pornography, an investigator wrote.
Several times, Davila said, his wife caught him viewing child pornography and threatened to call police, the complaint said, which she did not.
Before meeting with police, Davila admitted, he tried to get rid of the evidence on his phone, according to the complaint. Ultimately, his efforts were futile, and investigators found about 600 of the illicit files.
The complaint described pictures that depicted young victims — some as young as 1 — being sexually abused by adults.
In late September, Davila’s defense team submitted letters to a judge on behalf of his family, peers from his church, narcotics anonymous meetings and his job as a construction worker. He is a “good man” and “responsible in his work,” the letters said. “I hope that you will feel sorry for him,” another said. A sister only asked that he serve his sentence near his aging parents.
Five days later, prosecutors responded in a sentencing memorandum. “The government opposes the requested variance because Davila had the same support and community ties, yet this did not stop him from amassing more than 600 images of child sexual abuse images.”
The court should look at the facts of the case, and his criminal history, prosecutors wrote, asking for the 20-year maximum sentence.
The judge agreed.
