He broke into his neighbor’s home and took sexually explicit photographs of a child.
Baltimore, Md (KM) A Thurmont man is off to federal prison. The US Attorney’s Office for Maryland says Jose Alexander Diaz-Rodriguez, 23, was sentenced on Monday in US District Court in Baltimore to 18 years incarceration, followed by 25 years of supervised release for the sexual exploitation of a child. Following his release from prison, Diaz- Rodriquez must also register as a sex offender. wherever he lives, works or enrolls as a student.
Federal officials say Diaz-Rodriquez broke into his neighbor’s home on July 26th, 2019, and entered a bedroom where two girls were sleeping. He got into bed with one of the girls, an eight-year-old, and took pictures of the child intending to create sexually explicit images. The children’s mother heard a noise and went into the room where she saw Diaz-Rodriquez on the floor next to a bed. He fled .
A search warrant was executed at his home and his cell phone was seized. A forensic examination of the phone located more than 1,000 files depicting sexual abuse of children, including four images of the eight-year-old girl which Diaz-Rodriquez deleted before police arrived at his home, the US Attorney’s Office says.
Federal prosecutors say Diaz-Rodriquez admitted that he distributed this material depicting child abuse on his social media account, specifically an image documenting the sexual abuse of a child.
The US Attorney’s Office says this case was brought about through Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the US Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and child abuse.
By Kevin McManus