Cargreen

Army Pfc. Javier Pantoja Tinoco, 22, who is assigned to Fort Cavazos, Texas, admitted in court that he was drinking when he started a fire in a barracks laundry room trash can. He also admitted to having two sexually explicit videos on his phone of girls under 15 years old. (Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes)

FORT CAVAZOS, Texas – A Fort Cavazos soldier was sentenced Wednesday to six months of confinement and discharge after pleading guilty to possession of child sex material and setting fire to a barracks trash can during a night of heavy drinking.

Pfc. Javier Pantoja Tinoco, 22, admitted in court that he used a lighter to ignite a piece of paper in a garbage bin of a barracks laundry room after drinking malt liquor and cognac with a friend. He also admitted to having two sexually explicit videos on his phone of girls under 15 years old.

He was originally charged with setting fire to a washing machine valued at more than $1,000, which would have required a more severe sentence.

Pantoja Tinoco said it was his friend, the other soldier involved in the April 2023 incident, who came up with the idea of ​​spraying graffiti on the walls of the barracks and the washroom. The graffiti included racial slurs specifically derogatory to black people and gang signs. The second soldier, who was not named in court documents, was dismissed in lieu of court-martial, Pantoja Tinoco said in an unsworn statement.

Military judge Colonel Maureen Kohn also sentenced Pantoja Tinoco to discharge for bad conduct. He will have to register as a sex offender.

Maj. Steven Dray, Pantoja Tinoco’s attorney, asked the judge to recommend to Maj. Gen. Thomas Feltey, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division and the convening authority of the court-martial, that he suspend Pantoja Tinoco’s prison sentence. Four people who served with Pantoja Tinoco in the 3rd Cavalry Regiment testified to his good work ethic and positivity. Dray used their words as reason to trust that Pantoja Tinoco would continue to learn from his mistakes without spending time in prison.

Pantoja Tinoco enlisted in the Army in September 2022 and arrived at Fort Cavazos in early 2023, according to court documents and testimony Wednesday. He was assigned to the regiment’s engineer squadron.

Kohn did not indicate at the end of Wednesday’s hearing whether she would make such a recommendation.

As part of a settlement, charges that Pantoja Tinoco was drunk and disorderly and that he damaged military property with graffiti were dismissed.

The soldier wore black-framed glasses and spent about 30 minutes answering questions from the judge about his actions.

“I wanted to set the garbage can on fire because I thought it would be fun,” Pantoja Tinoco said. “I am ashamed of my actions.”

He said he did not look for the child sexual abuse videos he found on his phone. Instead, they were sent to him via a group chat on What’s App, a smartphone messaging app. Any photos or videos that Pantoja Tinoco received in the app were automatically saved to his device.

Pantoja Tinoco said he joined the group as a place to share music, funny photos and videos, but soon other users started sending sexually explicit videos of children. When the videos were downloaded to his camera roll, he moved them to a file on his phone called “CP.”

The soldier said he knew he should have deleted the photos or reported them to police because he knew then that it was wrong to keep them.

“I’m going to do what I can for a better life,” he said. “I will try to put this all behind me as best I can.”

Since the night of the arson, Pantoja Tinoco said he has significantly cut back on drinking alcohol and will return to his parents’ home in California. He said he plans to clean swimming pools or pick grapes with his uncle.