PITTSFIELD TOWNSHIP (WWJ/AP) - A North Carolina man convicted of posing as a teenager in order to sexually exploit an 11-year-old girl in Michigan has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of North Carolina says 49-year-old Ezekial Sandoval pleaded guilty to child exploitation and manufacturing child pornography in November. He was initially indicted on 12 related counts in May.
According to the investigation, a father in Pittsfield Township reported to local police on September 3, 2017 that his 11-year-old daughter had been sexually exploited online by an unknown individual.
The victim had met the individual online and believed she was communicating with a teenage girl named "Cindy." Law enforcement reviewed the conversation on the victim’s phone and saw that the person going by "Cindy" encouraged the victim to self-produce multiple explicit images and videos. At "Cindy's" request, the victim sent her images and videos during a week-long span in late August 2017.
Law enforcement determined that the telephone number for "Cindy" was in fact registered Sandoval, then 47-years-old. After further surveillance confirmed that Sandoval was the phone’s user, law enforcement obtained a federal search warrant for his Raleigh home and seized a phone and other digital devices.
On Sandoval's phone, investigators located an account for the Kik internet chat app with registered name "Cindy Baker." The FBI also recovered images that matched those sent from the Michigan victim. Forensics further revealed that Sandoval had accessed links that contained other child pornography online, finding over 2,000 still images and 180 videos of child pornography across his various digital devices.
The investigation was conducted by Federal Bureau of Investigation, Raleigh Police Department and the Pittsfield Township Police Department.