A 24-year-old Santa Ana minister pleaded guilty Thursday and was immediately sentenced to 318 days in jail for possessing thousands of images of sexually explicit visual content depicting someone under age 18, including some of infants.
Luis Pablo Anayamartin pleaded guilty to a count of possession or control of child pornography, a count of advertising of obscene matter depicting children, and three counts of sale or distribution of obscene matter with children engaging in sex, all felonies. He was given until Sept. 22 to report to jail, according to court records.
Anayamartin was arrested in November 2021 and posted $20,000 bail and was released from custody, according to court records.
Police received a cyber-tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that led investigators to the defendant, who downloaded and traded hundreds of uploaded images and videos of child pornography with others online, according to Santa Ana police.
Investigators seized multiple electronic devices from Anayamartin’s residence in Santa Ana, which included images of infants, police said.
While combing through his records, police discovered Anayamartin was ordained as a minister in 2018, but police have not determined if he was actively involved in any sort of church or place of religious worship, police said when he was arrested.