Long Beach man pleads guilty to charges he traveled to Mexico for sex with underage girl
A Long Beach man has pleaded guilty to charges he traveled to Mexico to have sex with a minor, according to court documents.
Jonathan Sandoval-Lepe, 31, will serve 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to one count of engaging in illict sex in a foreign place and one count of receiving child pornography, according to court documents made public Friday. He will be formally sentenced in February, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles said.
Between the spring of 2015 and June 2017, Sandoval-Lepe admitted, he repeatedly traveled to Mexico to have sex with a girl who was 12 to 16 years old, records show. In August of last year, Sandoval-Lepe also received a laptop containing child pornography, according to documents.
A search of Sandoval-Lepe’s “collection” of child pornography contained more than 600 images and videos of children under the age of 12 engaged in sexual activity, court records show.
As part of his plea deal, Sandoval-Lepe must have no contact with minors and pay restitution to his victims. He also must agree to lifetime supervision as a sex offender.
Sandoval-Lepe had been under investigation since September 2017, when an undercover detective obtained child pornography from him over an online program he used to exchange porn with other users, Kent Wegener, captain of the L.A. Regional Human Trafficking Task Force, previously told The Times.
Sandoval-Lepe was arrested in September of this year and had faced up to 130 years in prison if convicted on the five sex crimes stemming from the original indictment.
Twitter: @JamesQueallyLAT
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