Bay Area man convicted of sending $25,000 for illicit videos of trafficked children

SAN JOSE — A South Bay man was convicted of attempted child coercion and other felonies in a case where he sent $25,000 overseas to a site that posts live child pornography, prosecutors announced Thursday.

Johnny Ray Wolfenbarger, 64, faces up to 30 years on a conviction for the attempted production of child porn, and a maximum of life on the attempted coercion charge. He is set to be sentenced Dec. 8.

Wolfenbarger was convicted by a federal jury Thursday, after a weeklong trial in San Jose.

The crimes were discovered in 2016 when a tip from internet company Yahoo, sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, was forwarded to the FBI. Investigators obtained a search warrant for Wolfenbarger’s home, and discovered evidence he’d sent money to the Philippines as early as 2013, in exchange for customized videos of children being molested.

Authorities also discovered he traveled to the Philippines in 2015 and 2016, prosecutors said in a news release.

“Wolfenbarger was interviewed, and he admitted requesting and watching sex acts carried out by children between the ages of three and twelve years old during his webcam viewing sessions,” said assistant U.S. Attorney Gregg Lowder, a spokesman for the Northern District of California wing of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Wolfenbarger was remanded to federal custody after the verdict, prosecutors said.