Lubbock kicked off 2026 by reminding everyone that while we can’t agree on bike lanes or library funding, we can reliably produce deeply disturbing criminal cases. In one story, Stephen Salazar pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography and received a 16-year sentence in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He was first arrested back in July 2022 after local authorities found material that had been downloaded and stored for later viewing. You know, the kind of “storage” no one accidentally does.
Meanwhile, in federal court, 61-year-old Terry Joe Sides pleaded guilty to receipt and distribution of child pornography after investigators with the Texas Attorney General’s Office infiltrated a peer-to-peer file-sharing network earlier this year. Between March and July of 2025, authorities tracked multiple files—some so explicit they can’t even be described publicly—back to Sides’ IP address. Because, once again, the internet keeps receipts.
A federal search warrant led the FBI to Sides’ trailer, vehicle, and bedroom computer, where agents found multiple devices, wiped browsing histories, and—shockingly—more illegal material. Sides admitted to knowingly receiving or distributing the content and now faces up to 20 years in prison, pending sentencing. Apparently “delete history” doesn’t apply to federal forensic exams.
Taken together, these cases span years, jurisdictions, and levels of law enforcement—but share the same depressing theme: grown men, prolonged investigations, and crimes that somehow still catch people off guard every time they hit the news. Lubbock law enforcement did their jobs, the courts did theirs, and the rest of us are left wondering how this keeps happening with such consistency.
At what point do we stop being “shocked” and start admitting that this town’s real growth industry isn’t cotton or tech—but court dockets?
https://www.everythinglubbock.com/news/local-news/16-year-sentence-child-pornography/