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Jose Minaya, 27, has to serve just about all of the plea-bargained 186-month sentence approved by a U.S. District Court judge in Newark because there's no parole in the federal prison system.
He also must remain under lifetime supervised release and register as a sex offender under the terms of a deal he cut with the government.
Minaya “used a web-based application to engage an 11-year-old child in a sexually explicit conversation online [and] ultimately instructed the child to take sexually explicit photographs and send them to him,” U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
This came after Minaya used another web-based application to “upload an unrelated video depicting the graphic sexual assault of a child to the Internet, where it was publicly available,” says a complaint from the federal Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations unit in Newark.
Agents arrested Minaya at his home in May 2020.
They seized multiple electronic devices and eventually learned that Minaya had “used another application to entice an additional minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct,” Sellinger said.
Rather than risk the consequences of the trial, Minaya pleaded guilty this past January to producing child porn and online enticement in exchange for leniency at his sentencing in U.S. District Court in Newark on Monday, Aug. 14.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn Barnes of Sellinger's Criminal Division in Newark secured the deal and sentence for the government.
The outcome "shows our commitment to investigate predators who abuse children for perverse desires with no regard for the trauma the victims endure,” said HSI Newark Special Agent in Charge Ricky J. Patel.
Patel specifically thanked the Passaic County Sheriff's Office for its assistance on the case.
HSI Newark encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity, he said, through its toll-free tip line: 877-4HSI-TIP.
The agency takes a victim-centered approach to child exploitation investigations by working to identify, rescue and stabilize victims, Patel noted.
HSI works specifically in partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, ICAC partners, and other federal, state and local agencies to help solve cases and rescue sexually exploited children. You can report suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s toll-free, 24-hour hotline at 800-THE-LOST.
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