(WWJ) — A man who traveled from abroad to sexually abuse a young Michigan girl has been sentenced to nearly three decades in prison.
U.S. Attorney Mark Totten announced Thursday that 24-year-old Kristian Ignacio Feliz of Connecticut has been sentenced to 28 years in federal prison for sexually exploiting a child.
U.S. District Court Judge Jane Beckering emphasized the “manipulative” and violent nature of Feliz’s crimes, which the court said will impact the victim “for the rest of her life.”
Feliz was indicted in March 2023 and extradited from Spain in November 2023 to face charges for the abuse, which began in fall of 2022.
That October, according to Totten’s office, Feliz was a 23-year-old graduate student studying quantum physics abroad in Barcelona, Spain. Around that time he had “struck up an online relationship” with a 12-year-old girl living in Kalamazoo.
Feliz told the girl that he loved her and called her “my little wife,” while at the same time repeatedly pressuring her to create and send him pornographic videos, according to the attorney’s office.
Then, in January 2023, Feliz traveled to Kalamazoo and recorded videos of himself abusing the girl in her home over a three-day period. After he left town, Feliz instructed the girl to sell the videos online, and to have the money sent to his accounts.
“Every child deserves to grow up safe, healthy, and free from abuse,” said U.S. Attorney Mark Totten. “In this case, a sexual predator living abroad targeted a child in Kalamazoo, traveled here to abuse her, and then left the country.”
Totten said his office worked closely with state, federal and international agencies to make sure “Feliz was hauled back to Michigan to face justice in our courts.”
“Today's sentencing is a shining example of the brilliant interagency and international coordination between the FBI's Western Michigan Violent Crime Task Force, the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, the U.S. Attorney's Office, and the Government of Spain,” said Cheyvoryea Gibson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Michigan. “No matter how far away those who commit these crimes may be, we will use all of our available resources to extradite you to the U.S. to face justice.”
This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.
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