Youngsville Man and Former Educator Sentenced to Federal Prison on Child Pornography Charge

Angel Rafael Cardona, 35, of Youngsville, Louisiana, was
sentenced today on child pornography charges, announced United States Attorney Brandon
B. Brown. United States District Judge David C. Joseph sentenced Cardona to 120 months
(10 years) in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release.
Cardona was charged in an indictment with one count of using a facility to cause a
minor to engage in criminal sexual activity and he pleaded guilty to the charge in January of
this year. Evidence in this case revealed that in June 2023, Cardona began communicating
through Whisper, an online chat application, with a user who identified as a 13-year-old
female. Unbeknownst to Cardona, the user was an undercover law enforcement agent.
Cardona sent a direct message to the user inquiring about a post she had made about summer
school. Two days later, Cardona asked the user if they had an account on another online chat
site and the agent responded that they did have a Kik account, and he then contacted the
undercover minor female through that application. These communications between the two
continued from June 8, 2023, to July 10, 2023, until the user told Cardona that the Kik
application kept crashing and to contact her through text message and provided a phone
number. The text messages between Cardona and the undercover agent continued through
July 24, 2023.
Conversations about sex, sexual experiences, and the undercover agent’s body were
brought up by Cardona throughout this time period. On numerous occasions, the undercover
agent made reference to her age of 13. The conversations regarding her sexual inexperience
increased over time becoming more graphic and detailed. Eventually, Cardona began asking
the undercover agent for pictures of herself and asked for images containing sexual material.
On July 11 and 13, 2023, Cardona specifically and explicitly asked for the undercover agent
to produce and send him child pornography. The undercover agent gave excuses of her
mother’s presence in the home for not complying and Cardona instructed her to be sneaky
about it in order to create the images.
He brought up the idea of meeting in person on numerous occasions and eventually
they agreed to meet at Veterans Park in Lafayette on July 24, 2023. The defendant admitted
that he intended to meet the person he believed to be a minor female for the purpose of
engaging in some form of sexual activity that would be a crime under the laws of the state of
Louisiana.
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The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by
Assistant United States Attorneys J. Luke Walker and Craig R. Bordelon.
This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a U.S. Department of Justice nationwide
initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S.
Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section,
Project Safe Childhood combines 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
www.projectsafechildhood.gov.