Yakima, Washington – First Assistant United States Attorney Pete Serrano announced that on September 11, 2026, Ricardo Louis Espinosa, age 47, of Yakima, Washington, was sentenced to 120 months in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release by Chief United States District Judge Stanley A. Bastian in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington. Chief Judge Bastian also ordered Espinosa pay $33,000 in restitution to victims. Espinosa pled guilty to one count of Possession of Child Pornography on May 19, 2026.
According to court documents and information presented at sentencing, on September 8, 2025, Espinosa was involved in a domestic violence incident and told responding Yakima Police Department officers that he had “kiddy stuff” on his phone that he had received online. Espinosa represented that he wished to help law enforcement. Further investigation by an HSI task force officer with Southeast Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and Homeland Security Investigations revealed that Espinosa sought “samples” from vendors of child pornography on internet message services and possessed twenty-six videos and thirty-three images of child pornography on his cellular telephone.
Prior to the federal investigation, in 2001 Espinosa was convicted of Lewd or Lascivious Acts with Child Under 14 in Sacramento Superior Court, Sacramento, California. He also had a prior conviction in 2006 for Failure to Register as a Sex Offender in Benton County Superior Court, Kennewick, Washington.
“Repeat offenders who persist in exploiting children pose a grave and ongoing threat to our communities,” stated Serrano. “Espinosa’s history made his horrific conduct even more alarming, and our prosecution through the hard work of the ICAC Task Force and the Yakima Police Department resulted in a strong sentence that reflects the seriousness of these crimes. Our office will continue to prioritize cases involving repeat offenders and pursue every available measure to protect children and hold predators fully accountable.” “It is clear Espinosa is a danger to the community, and this sentence will keep him off our streets for a significant amount of time,” said Acting HSI Seattle Special Agent in Charge April Miller. “We will do everything we can to find and investigate predators like this. Our children and our communities deserve no less."
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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.
This case was investigated by the Southeast Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and Homeland Security Investigations and the Yakima Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael Murphy.1:25-cr-02125-SAB