Martin Perea, 42, of Los Lunas, pleaded guilty on Aug. 17 in federal court to production of child pornography. Perea will remain in custody pending sentencing, which has not been scheduled.
A federal grand jury indicted Perea on Aug. 25, 2015. According to court records, on July 1, 2015, the victim’s mother discovered pornographic content of Perea and the victim on a memory card from Perea’s cellular telephone.
The mother confronted Perea about the pornographic content and, two days later, fled with the victim to Spokane, Wash. Once in Spokane, the mother contacted local law enforcement authorities to file a complaint against Perea.
The FBI obtained a federal search warrant for the card and, on July 28, 2015, a search was performed at the New Mexico Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory. The memory card contained numerous video files of child pornography.
In his plea agreement, Perea admitted that from Oct. 8, 2014, to March 2015, he knowingly used the victim to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography. Perea acknowledged that the victim was 7 and 8 years old at the time Perea committed the crimes.
By the terms of the plea agreement, Perea faces 17 to 25 years in prison and must register as a sex offender.
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April 18, 2024
