JACKSONVILLE – Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Corrigan sentenced Henry Obdulio Cordon, 39, Antioch, California, to 30 years in federal prison for producing a photo of a 3-year-old child being sexually abused by Cordon. He was also ordered to serve a life term of supervised release and to register as a sex offender.

Cordon, who used to live in Orange Park, was arrested at his residence on May 16, 2019, and has been in custody since then. He pleaded guilty to the offense on June 14.

According to court documents, this investigation began in April 2019 when an internet service provider sent a series of CyberTipline reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). These reports related to the discovery of child sexual abuse photos within an email account that was geolocated to Contra Costa County in California. Law enforcement officers obtained search warrants and discovered that this email account and telephone number were associated with Cordon. The email account contained several photos depicting children being sexually abused. 

Further investigation revealed that another email account used by Cordon contained a photo that depicted a young child being sexually abused by an adult male. The metadata associated with this photo indicated that it had been produced on July 11, 2011, using a Blackberry device. Search warrants revealed that this email account was used during April and May 2019 at Cordon’s apartment in California.

On May 16, 2019, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Cordon’s residence. During an interview, Cordon admitted he had searched the internet for “nude teen pictures.” When asked if he ever had a Blackberry device, Cordon said he had one before when he lived in Florida. He was asked about a particular photo depicting the sexual abuse of a child that was recovered from his email account. Cordon eventually admitted that he knew the child in the photo and was “maybe” younger than 4. Cordon claimed that his sexual abuse of this child only happened one time and that he remembered emailing this photo to himself to save it. Cordon admitted to taking this photo with his Blackberry at the child’s residence in Florida. 

Further investigation confirmed that Cordon took the photo depicting his sexual abuse of the child in Florida and later emailed the picture to his email account. This same photo was also recovered from his iPhone, which he possessed in California on May 16, 2019. Law enforcement authorities in Florida were able to confirm the identity and age of this child, as well as the residence in Florida where Cordon had taken the photo depicting him sexually abusing this child.

This case was investigated by the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force of Contra Costa County (California), the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Department, the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office, the Clay County Sheriff’s Office and Homeland Security Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorney D. Rodney Brown prosecuted it.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and to identify and rescue victims.

For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit justice.gov/psc.