A man charged by a federal grand jury for allegedly cyberstalking minor girls in Hawaii, Texas, Oklahoma, California and Missouri to produce and distribute child pornography was sent back to Missouri for further prosecution, a U.S. Magistrate Judge ordered Friday.
Gerardo Javier Montes, 31, was arrested July 29 in Honolulu by agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Missouri returned an indictment July 27 charging Montes with distribution of child pornography, attempted production of child pornography and cyberstalking.
Montes faces a mandatory minimum term of 15 years in prison if convicted of producing child pornography, a mandatory term of five years if convicted of distributing child pornography, and enhanced penalties on the cyberstalking charge because the victim is a minor, according to a motion to detain filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle T. Bateman, from the eastern district of Missouri.
Montes has an “extensive history involving the sexual exploitation of minor females,” Bateman wrote.
The victims were listed by initials and include a 13-year-old victim identified as P.R. in Hawaii, 14-year-old F.W. in Missouri, 17-year-old J.K. in Oklahoma, 16-year-old K.F. in Texas and a 26-year old, S.N., in California. Montes allegedly had a relationship with S.N. when she was 15 and he was 20, according to federal court documents.
Federal agents and police also alleged that Montes was “communicating with other, as yet identified, minor females.”
“Several of these communications can be traced to the defendant visiting online messaging boards for depression and suicide,” wrote Bateman. “In other communications, the defendant pretended to be a young girl to encourage minor females to send sexually explicit images and videos.”
In Hawaii, federal prosecutors allege that Montes used a Reddit account to pose as a female and communicate with victim P.R., the 13-year-old girl living in Hawaii.
Montes contacted P.R. through a “TeensMeetTeens” Reddit chat and allegedly sent sexually explicit images of victim S.N. to victim P.R. while posing as victim S.N.
Montes sent the “sexually explicit images” to P.R. and asked her to
reciprocate with similar images of herself. “Victim P.R. refused. The
defendant also asked victim P.R.
if she could sneak out and meet
up with him. Victim P.R. refused,”
according to the motion to detain Montes.
Montes appeared by telephone from the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu before U.S. Magistrate Judge Rom A. Trader from 9:29 to 9:42 a.m. Friday, according to federal court documents. Trader ordered that Montes remain in federal custody before being committed to the Eastern District of Missouri for his initial appearance.
