Grand Prairie man gets nearly 36-year sentence for child pornography involving two 6-year-old girls

A Grand Prairie man who used two 6-year-old girls to create child pornography was sentenced to 35 years and 10 months in prison Thursday, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of Texas announced Thursday.

Juan Navarro Jr., 38, pleaded guilty in January to sexual exploitation of a child and possession of child pornography, the office said in a news release.

An investigation into Navarro was launched after Yahoo! reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that one of its email users had uploaded child pornography, the office said.

Grand Prairie police searched Navarro’s home on Sept. 3, 2019, and found a smartphone with stored images of child pornography, the office said. Some of the images appeared to have been taken with the phone.

As part of a plea deal, Navarro admitted to taking pornographic images of two 6-year-old girls and saving them on his phone, the office said. The images were taken between February and August 2019, while he was dating the girls’ mother, according to court documents.

Navarro initially denied knowing the girls, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

“My girls are not physically here, but I am. I’m here so my voice can be their voice and the voice of all of those other innocent victims,” the girls’ mother said at Navarro’s sentencing, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. “We need our voices to be heard.”

The girls have received psychological and medical care, the office said.

U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman presided over Navarro’s sentencing, and assistant U.S. Attorney Brandie Wade prosecuted the case, the office said.

Navarro’s lawyer did not immediately return a request for comment.