July 17, 2021 - SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – U.S. District Court Judge Francisco A. Besosa sentenced Marcos Rivera-Ramos to 156 months (13 years) in prison and 10 years of supervised release for sexual enticement of a 14-year-old girl, announced W. Stephen Muldrow, United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico.

According to the facts admitted during the change of plea hearing, the parents of the female minor reported to the FBI that their daughter received at least one image of an adult male’s penis on her Apple iPhone through the Snapchat application. The victim told her parents the image was sent to her by Rivera-Ramos, an usher at their church.

The defendant had known the victim for approximately four years. They began communicating in a group chat of people from church, but later switched to communicating privately with each other via WhatsApp. Over the last year when they were communicating on WhatsApp, the conversation turned sexual. Defendant Rivera-Ramos asked the 14-year-old girl to send him sexually explicit images and videos of herself.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation was in charge of the investigation.  Assistant United States Attorney Ginette Milanes prosecuted the case.