FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, N.J. (1010 WINS) — A New Jersey mom and three associates have been sentenced to a combined 67 years in prison for the repeated sexual abuse and human trafficking of the woman's 7-year-old daughter, the Somerset County District Attorney's Office announced Friday.
Marina Volz, 32, and Ashely Romero, 28, were each given 25 years in state prison. Sean Allen, 52, was sentenced to 12 years in prison, while Dulcinea Gnecco received a five-year sentence.
The investigation began in January 2019 when an anonymous call was made to the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency's Child Abuse Hotline and reported the abuse of the 7-year-old residing in Volz's Coburn Lane home in Franklin Township.
NJ DCP&P personell and Franklin Township Police Department officers responded to the defendants’ residence and began an investigation which ultimately resulted in the child being removed from the home.
The next day, detectives from the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Unit interviewed the child, and thereafter executed a search warrant on the defendants’ residence.
According to the evidence seized -- including more than 30 computers, cameras and digital storage devices -- and a further ensuing investigation revealed that defendants Volz, Romero and Allen operated a "family-owned transgender pornography production studio specializing in amateur, BDSM and taboo fetish content" at the home, according to investigators.
The investigation revealed that in in December 2018, Volz travelled to the West Coast to assume custody of her biological seven-year old daughter and brought the child back to New Jersey with the purpose of engaging in sexual activity with the child. Romero and Allen assisted Volz in bringing the child to New Jersey to be sexually assaulted and filmed.
Once in New Jersey, Romero and Allen sexually assaulted the girl and videotaped the incident, which was found on several electronic devices in the house. During the examination of the electronic devices, multiple text messages and other electronic conversations between Volz, Romero, Allen, and third parties detailing the sexual abuse of the child were discovered.
At the defendants' home, police discovered guns, a high-capacity ammo magazine and cocaine.
Police arrested the group on May 29, 2019, and have since been jailed. Volz, Romero and Allen eventually pleaded guilty to various counts of sex trafficking, sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child in November.
Volz and Allen must serve the entirety of their 25-year sentence before being eligible for parole. Allen will be eligible for parole after serving ten years. Gnecco will serve the entire five years after pleading guilty to two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
"There is no hope that they will emerge from incarceration as better people because they are not capable," assistant prosecutor W. Brian Stack said at the sentencing. "They’re bad people."
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