Crane man pleads in sexting case
MIDLAND A man accused of sexting a 15-year-old girl in 2009 pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to a charge of transfer of obscene materials to minors.
A coercion or enticement of a minor female charge was dropped in the plea deal. He could face up to 10 years in federal prison and have a minimum of five years supervised release after that sentence.
He will be sentenced in Judge Robert Junell’s court at 8:30 a.m. April 26.
Crane resident Michael Angelo Cavazos, 32, was questioned in September 2010 after an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement raid on his house on suspicion he repeatedly enticed and coerced the girl via phone and Internet.
Cavazos told officers he met the girl at a social gathering with her father and soon began exchanging texts and instant messages with her, according to the federal criminal complaint.
The texting turned to sexting with time, he said in the complaint, and that in one message, “he asked (victim) if she would go ‘all the way’ (i.e., have sex with him) if things got ‘hot.’ ”
The two kissed in 2009 and began sending nude photographs to each other via text in the spring of 2010, according to the complaint.
He also told investigators that he had contacted four other female minors between 14 and 17 years old in Crane, but denied enticing or having sexual contact with them, according to the complaint. He said he was arrested when he was 18 after a 14-year-old girl claimed he raped her, but the charges were later dropped.
The affidavit stated Cavazos said he never downloaded any child pornography and said he never had sexual contact with the girl in this case outside of normal affection showing such as hugging.
Despite those claims by law enforcement and the prosecution in court documents, Cavazos made a motion for the entire interview to be suppressed because he was not read his Miranda rights, which include the right to remain silent and not incriminate himself.
Judge Robert Junell granted the motion to suppress the evidence in January 2011 and the federal prosecutors then appealed that decision.
However, appellate judges affirmed the original decision, stating that although Cavazos was told the interview was "non-custodial," that was not enough to outweigh the actions and circumstances of the interview.
"Reviewing, in totality, the unique circumstances presented in the record here, in the light most favorable to Cavazos, the party prevailing below, we find a reasonable person in Cavazos’s position would not feel 'he or she was at liberty to terminate the interrogation and leave,'" according to the appellate order.
The law enforcement officers treated him as someone who was arrested and was not free to go, although they claimed otherwise, the judges ruled Jan. 19.
