Illegal Immigrant Gets 50 Years for Producing Child Pornography

An illegal immigrant living in the U.S. by evading deportation was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison after being convicted of producing child pornography.

Edwin Velasquez-Curuchiche, a 40-year-old illegal immigrant from Guatemala, pleaded guilty to two counts of producing child pornography, according to  Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

While Velasquez-Curuchiche was living in a trailer park in Lebanon, Tennessee, in 2015, he preyed on a family living next door, which included a 9-year-old boy, a 6-year-old girl, and an infant. Velasquez-Curuchiche gave the children video games and offered to play with them while their father was away from home.

In September 2015, Velasquez-Curuchiche was able to copy the key of the family’s home after he tricked the children’s mother into letting him borrow the key. The mother was unaware that Velasquez-Curuchiche had copied her house key. That same month, Velasquez-Curuchiche broke into the family’s home and recorded himself sexually molesting the 6-year-old girl as she slept. A month later, Velasquez-Curuchiche broke in again and recorded more videos of child molestation. Later that year, Velasquez-Curuchiche tried to convince the mother to give her 6-year-old daughter an adult dose of Valium to treat a fever. When the parents refused, Velasquez-Curuchiche tried to pay the 9-year-old boy to administer the dose.

In October 2015, the 6-year-old girl woke up in the middle of the night and went running to her parents’ bedroom as she was crying. She told her parents that someone had been touching her while she slept. Her parents checked the bedroom, but did not find anyone inside, leading them to believe that the girl was imagining the incident. Later in the month, the family came home and the 6-year-old girl went to her bedroom to grab a toy. Velasquez-Curuchiche was hiding under her bed and proceeded to grab her by the arm, telling her to remain quiet as he tried to convince her with a game on her phone.

The 6-year-old went running out of the room to tell her parents. When her father entered the room and looked, he found Velasquez-Curuchiche hiding in the girl’s closet and held him there until police came to put the illegal immigrant in handcuffs.

“No sentence can ever restore the innocence this illegal alien took from these little children,” ICE Special Agent Robert Hammer said in a statement.  “The fact that he would sneak into their house at night, victimize them, and film the whole thing highlights the danger he posed to the entire community.”

Velasquez-Curuchiche entered the U.S. in June 2013 and was subsequently apprehended. The illegal immigrant did not appear for his scheduled immigration court hearing, evading deportation and going on to live in the country undetected for more than three years.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.