Former Las Cruces principal gets 11 years in prison for uploading child porn

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico -- Joel Aguilar Villanueva, the former principal of Zia Middle School in Las Cruces, was sentenced Tuesday to 11 years in prison in a plea deal with federal prosecutors on child pornography charges.

Under the deal, Villanueva pleaded guilty to transportation of child pornography. He was originally charged with both possession and transportation of child pornography and could have faced up to 40 years in prison if convicted.

According to the plea agreement and other court documents, the 45-year-old Villanueva admitted uploading a video to Twitter in 2018 that depicted a child engaged in a sex act with an adult. It was posted with the comment “aprenden rapido,” which translates to English as, “they learn fast.”

Villanueva was arrested by Homeland Security agents in April 2019 and was later fired by the Las Cruces Public Schools. Prior to coming to New Mexico in 2017, he had served as a principal or assistant principal at multiple schools in Texas.