Albuquerque man pleads guilty to manufacturing child pornography in federal court

A federal guilty plea has narrowed the Bernalillo County case against Timothy Houle, 34, after prosecutors agreed to dismiss distribution and possession counts tied to alleged child sexual abuse material.

Houle appeared Thursday before U.S. District Judge Lucy Soliman in Albuquerque for a change-of-plea hearing and pleaded guilty to one count of manufacturing child pornography. In exchange, prosecutors dropped the counts accusing him of distributing and possessing the material. He now faces up to 12 years in federal prison, and the court set sentencing for August.

The case began in January after Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Houle following a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Court records show MediaLab/Kik submitted a CyberTipline report on Jan. 22, 2026, and the New Mexico Department of Justice’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received the case the next day under CyberTip number 228439612. The warrant said the report appeared to involve newly produced or homemade content, and it listed Houle’s last known address as 7509 Lamplighter Ln NE in Albuquerque and his date of birth as Sept. 2, 1991.

Investigators said Houle had custody of two children, and one child matched the age and description of the child in the reported image. That detail helps explain why the case moved quickly from an online report to local arrest and then into federal court. It also shows how Bernalillo County cases involving internet exploitation often depend on cooperation between platforms, NCMEC, state ICAC investigators and county deputies before prosecutors file charges.

For families in Albuquerque and across Bernalillo County, the case points to the reporting system that underlies most child-exploitation investigations. The U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative, launched in May 2006, directs federal, state and local agencies to locate, apprehend and prosecute people who exploit children online. NCMEC’s CyberTipline remains a key entry point for reports that can trigger that response, and the New Mexico ICAC network is designed to move those tips to investigators as quickly as possible. In cases like Houle’s, that pipeline is part of the public-safety response long before a sentence is imposed.