FRESNO - Gary Lee Briggs, 66, of Fresno, pleaded guilty today to receiving and distributing child pornography, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced. According to court documents, on Jan. 3, 2020, a concerned citizen reported to law enforcement that Briggs appeared to be trying to lure an eight-year-old boy into Briggs’s apartment in Fresno.

When officers confronted Briggs, he reported that he planned to test his ability to withstand urges that attracted him to the boy. Briggs also admitted that Facebook recently terminated his account for transmitting sexually explicit material on that platform. Facebook separately had notified the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children that Briggs’s Facebook account had been used to transmit sexually explicit images of minors from August through December 2019.

This case is the product of an investigation by the Central Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, specifically the Fresno Police Department, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, and Homeland Security Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Gappa is prosecuting the case.

Briggs is scheduled to be sentenced before U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston on Oct. 23, 2023. Briggs faces a mandatory prison term of between 15 and 40 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after considering any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which consider several variables.