SANTA BARBARA — All Salvador Gallego Munoz, 34, wanted when he walked into the downtown Santa Barbara Sprint Phone Store on December 19th, 2013 was an upgrade from his clunky old iPhone 4 to the new hotshot ramma-jamma iPhone 5. Perhaps unsatisfied with the storage capacity of the earlier version… or the quality of photos he could take… he turned in his old cell phone, purchased the new one, and had the Sprint staff copy all the data from one to the other.
Munoz then left the store, leaving his old “trade in” phone behind for recycling and refurbishing. According to Santa Barbara Police Department Public Information Officer Sgt. Riley Harwood, however, following the data transfer a Sprint employee tasked with refurbishing the old phone “found an image of an approximately 10- to 12-year-old boy engaged in a sexual contact stored in the phone’s memory.” Pursuant to Sprint policy, the employee notified SBPD, which picked up Munoz’s old cell phone and initiated an investigation which quickly identified Munoz as the owner and potential suspect in trafficking child pornography.
SBPD Crimes Against Persons Detective Charlie Katsapis obtained a search warrant allowing him to further investigate the data contents of Munoz’s phone, and with the help of crime lab specialists, determined that “it contained three images of child pornography,” pursuant to which both a $20,000 arrest warrant and another search warrant for Munoz’s residence were obtained.
Those warrants were executed and Munoz was arrested January 7th when his home computer was found to have “thousands of images and videos of child pornography” on its hard drive. When he was taken into custody, according to Harwood’s report to the media, “Munoz acknowledged that he has acquired and exchanged child pornography over the internet since 2006.” The evidence found and Munoz’s apparent candor earned him a felony booking in Santa Barbara County Jail on charges of possession of obscene materials with his bail set at $20,000.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
Read more:
Santa Maria Times: Buellton man arrested for possessing child porn on phone, computer
Lompoc Record: Man arrested for alleged child porn
Noozhawk: Buellton Man Arrested After Child Pornography Found on Phone, Computer
