A Texas man who attempted to meet a “kid” for sex in exchange for Skittles and vodka may face life in prison after being convicted in an undercover web probe.
Jose Luis Espinoza Jr., 38, was arrested in February during a sting in Snyder, a place roughly 260 miles west of Dallas. He was recently convicted at trial for attempted enticing of a juvenile, according to a news statement issued Wednesday by Leigha Simonton, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.
The Snyder Police Department investigated with assistance from the FBI’s Dallas Field Office.
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On February 5, a Snyder police officer constructed a social media page impersonating a 13-year-old girl named “Maddi.” Later that day, Espinoza contacted Maddi’s profile and quickly began discussing sexual activity, according to the US Attorney’s Office. Espinoza also sought photographs of the girl. After receiving a photo of what seemed to be a girl but was an age-regressed photo of the officer, Espinoza continued to send vulgar and lascivious texts, according to the US Attorney’s Office.
“You are a kid, aren’t you,” he told the undercover officer. “I’m a horny old guy… guys get locked up for talking to girls like you.”
On February 7, Espinoza asked Maddi to meet him at a park near her home.
He promised her Skittles and whisky. He also offered to bring a towel for her.
“Idk if I wanna do it, I am scared,” the cop acting as an adolescent girl said Espinoza, to which he responded with a laughing emoji and told her she was “so whiny” and needed to “relax.”
That following day, Espinoza was apprehended in the park. Snyder police officers discovered Skittles, whiskey, condoms, a towel, and a 9mm Glock handgun in his car.
Espinoza could face ten years to life in prison.
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Meanwhile, Tim Bray, director of the Institute for Urban Policy Research at the University of Texas at Dallas, stated that law enforcement is constantly “taking advantage of new technology, and age regression of photos is just one of those.”
“This allows us to still have operations but not bring pictures of real children into the equation,” Bray told me.
According to Bray, making age-regressed photos is relatively straightforward, as certain social media platforms allow you to upload a photo of yourself and, within seconds, generate images that make you appear younger.
“So everything is legal until a court tells us otherwise,” Bray told me. “I think one of the advantages here is that is a photo of the person that they were interacting with.”