Ex-Sabado Gigante actor found guilty in child porn case
A Miami jury was asked to weigh the fate of Adonis Losada, the ex-Sábado Gigante actor accused of keeping a cache of child pornography on his computer hard drive.
Jurors gave a thumbs down to his histrionic performance on the witness stand.
Losada was convicted Friday afternoon on 52 counts of possessing the illegal images, which means the one-time funnyman faces up to 765 years behind bars when he is sentenced in the coming weeks.
He did not react as the court clerk, count by count, read the verdict.
Losada, 52, was a staple on the long-running Univision variety show that ended last fall. Cops arrested him in 2009 after a child-pornography task force found dozens of illegal images on a computer hard drive stuffed in his bedroom hamper in Miami Beach.
Prosecutors say Losada met an undercover detective in an online chat room called “Baby Toddler Love,” knowingly sending an illicit image depicting a young child.
“There is no doubt. They’re not even close to 18. They’re babies,” prosecutor Pavielle Bookman told jurors.
Losada later met with an undercover detective at a Starbucks in Hallandale Beach, where he viewed a book of illegal images – all while hidden police video cameras rolled.
He is already serving a 10-year prison sentence after losing a similar trial in Palm Beach County.
In the Miami case, the ex-comic took the stand on Thursday and true to his theatrical background, he dramatically and defiantly insisted he was no child-porn perv.
“No sir, I do not like it,” Losada cried in Spanish, waving his hands. “You have to enjoy that garbage. You have to be a very sick person to like that.”
His lawyer, David Sissleman, told jurors Friday that Losada only went along with the child-porn talk as a way to bed the man he later learned was a cop.
“Adonis was looking for a guy,” Sissleman said. “Guys on a date say a lot of things to get to the end result. You like mermaids? I’ll say I like mermaids and play Poseidon and bring my trident.”
This story was originally published April 15, 2016 at 12:00 PM with the headline "Ex-Sabado Gigante actor found guilty in child porn case."