Posted on: Saturday, January 24, 2004
Ex-soldier pleads guilty in sex abuse, porn case
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
A former Schofield Barracks soldier faces up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexual abuse of a minor, advertising child pornography and witness tampering.
Jesus Norberto Evans-Martinez, 34, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court here. He will be sentenced on Nov. 1 by U.S. District Judge David Ezra.
Evans-Martinez was arrested March 21, 2003, after an investigation by the FBI, which received a complaint from an e-mail service in Copenhagen, Denmark. The complaint alleged that an e-group provided by Internet server Yahoo! was being used to transmit and share child pornography, according to U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo.
The FBI was given several e-mails that had been sent to and from an account, which was traced to Evans-Martinez, Kubo said. Some of the e-mails contained child pornography and others discussed ways to use alcohol or drugs to have sex with minors, Kubo said.
On the day of his arrest, FBI agents searched Evans-Martinez's Schofield Barracks home and found computers and other items that contained child pornography, including images of him having sex with a girl, Kubo said.
In his plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Evans-Martinez admitted sending an e-mail that contained child pornography to various e-groups. He also admitted creating a new e-group to share child pornography and attached a movie that depicted sexual acts with minors, Kubo said.
Evans-Martinez also admitted that he persuaded someone to destroy evidence while he was being held at the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu. He said he did so to make the evidence unavailable to authorities in the criminal proceedings against him, Kubo said.
Evans-Martinez faces up to 20 years in prison on the advertising child pornography charge, but he must serve a minimum sentence of 10 years, Kubo said. He also faces 15 years on the sexual assault charge and 10 years on the witness tampering charge.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Tong.
