San Jose Resident Sentenced To Five And A Half Years In Federal Prison For Possession Of Child Pornography

SAN FRANCISCO - David Alvarez was sentenced last week to 66 months in federal prison for possession of child pornography. Senior U.S. District Judge William Orrick handed down the sentence.

Alvarez, 38, of San Jose, was indicted by a federal grand jury on July 31, 2024. Alvarez pleaded guilty on June 26, 2025, to one count of possession of child pornography. According to the plea agreement, Alvarez admitted to possessing five electronic devices that he knew contained approximately 960 files of child pornography. Alvarez further admitted that he distributed child pornography to others via social media and messaging applications, and that he also generated screen recordings of video chat sessions where he played his child pornography collection for 70 different people.

During those recorded video chats, Alvarez asked one user to masturbate next to the user's sleeping child. Alvarez also showed another user a video depicting the sexual abuse of a child and, while the video played, remarked that he "[d]id this to my nephew a few times" when the nephew was seven years old. Alvarez also exchanged messages that were sexual in nature with a person who told Alvarez he was 15 years old. In those messages, Alvarez solicited pictures from the minor, who sent Alvarez a nude picture. In return, Alvarez sent the minor images of his own genitalia.

United States Attorney Craig H. Missakian and Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Jeff Brannigan made the announcement.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Orrick sentenced the defendant to a 10-year period of supervised release and ordered that he pay restitution to one of his victims. The defendant will begin serving the sentence on July 10, 2026.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared S. Buszin is prosecuting the case. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations.