Fort Bragg Non-Commissioned Officer Sentenced to Prison for Child Pornography Crimes
FORT BRAGG, N.C. – A non-commissioned officer who pleaded guilty to child pornography crimes was sentenced by the military judge to five and a half years in prison during his court-martial at the Fort Bragg Courtroom Dec. 18.
Staff Sgt. Anthony Garcia, 30, a chaplain’s assistant assigned to the 525th Expeditionary Military Intelligence Brigade, XVIII Airborne Corps, pleaded guilty to the possession, receipt and distribution of child pornography.
There was one victim identified in this case, a female minor. The remaining victims are unidentified victims of child pornography.
In addition to the prison sentence, the judge sentenced him to reduction in rank to E-1 and a bad conduct discharge.
Garcia found the victim in August 2020 through Snapchat and began messaging her, taking advantage of her being in the foster system and in need of finances and support. He convinced her to send him more than 300 images and videos of child pornography from 2020 through 2022.
As early as 2022, Garcia started engaging online with other collectors of child pornography and began trading images and videos to expand his personal library. He conducted his distribution and receipt through various digital applications, including Snapchat, Telegram, Discord, and Sessions. He would often ask other collectors for tips on how to obtain more child pornography imagery.
In March 2024, Snapchat flagged his account and sent a Cybertip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children who notified the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division. This initiated an investigation into his online accounts and personal electronic devices.
Garcia continued his child pornography activities until June 2024 and only stopped because Snapchat banned his account. He was concerned about getting caught so he deleted everything.
Army CID’s investigation into his online activities and cell phone revealed that in addition to the child pornography images and video he received from the victim, he possessed over 350 additional images and videos on his cellphone, the majority of which contained images of children under 10-years-old and toddlers.
When presented with this evidence during an interview, Garcia admitted to his crimes.
“Staff Sgt. Garcia’s actions betrayed the trust of his position as a chaplain’s assistant and a non-commissioned officer by exploiting the most vulnerable children,” said Capt. Gabrielle Lucero, prosecutor, Second Circuit, Army Office of Special Trial Counsel. “His sentence is one step in protecting those children and demonstrating that the Army will not tolerate child exploitation.”
Garcia will serve his prison sentence at the United States Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Upon release from prison, he will be required to register as a sex offender and will be subject to federal and state sex offender registration requirements.
This case was investigated by the Army CID’s Fort Bragg Resident Agency and prosecuted by Lucero and Capt. Ben Emmi, 3rd Corps Sustainment Command, XVIII Airborne Corps.
The Army Office of Special Trial Counsel is comprised of specially trained military lawyers, legal professionals and support staff responsible for the expert and independent prosecution of murder, sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, kidnapping and other serious criminal offenses. Headquartered at Fort Belvoir, Va., OSTC has eight regional headquarters that oversee 28 field offices located across the country to include Europe and Korea. For more information visit https://www.army.mil/ostc.
If you would like to report a crime, have information about a crime, or have been the subject or survivor of a crime, you can submit anonymous tips to Army CID at www.p3tips.com/armycid.
