A man from Thermal, California, has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for attempted production of child pornography. The sentencing took place on February 9, 2026, and was announced by United States Attorney Ron Parsons.
Juan Pedro Gobea, age 34, received a sentence that includes five years of supervised release after his prison term and a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund. Upon release, he will be required to register as a sex offender.
Gobea was indicted by a federal grand jury in December 2024 and pleaded guilty on November 3, 2025. According to authorities, the conviction resulted from an undercover chat operation in March 2024. During this operation, Gobea used his Reddit account with the username “saviourtaste” to try to persuade someone he believed was a 15-year-old girl from South Dakota to send him sexually explicit images. The person he contacted was actually an undercover law enforcement officer.
The investigation was conducted by the South Dakota Internet Crimes Against Children (SD ICAC) Task Force and Homeland Security Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Ebert-Webb prosecuted the case.
“This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.”
Following sentencing, Gobea was immediately remanded into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service.
