Convicted sex offender from Jamaica Plain gets 22 years for convincing 13-year-old to send him nude photos and pose sexually in online video chats

A Jamaica Plain man was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison yesterday after admitting he convinced a 13-year-old girl in Ohio to send him nude photos and engage in sexual activity via video chat - while he was on probation for his conviction on a series of similar sexual charges involving children.

US District Court Judge Patti Saris issued the sentence - to be followed by five years of probation - after Hector Acevedo, 33, had pleaded guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography by a recidivist - and after his own attorney recommended a 20-year sentence that he said would help ensure he would pose no further threat when he was finally released. Prosecutors had urged a sentence of 25 years.

In 2018, Acevedo pleaded guilty in state court on 12 counts after he admitted to threatening to kill the families of three girls he met online if they did not pose nude for him in 2014. He was sentenced to five to seven years in state prison, but was released in 2020.

Just months after his release, and while still on probation, the US Attorney's office says:

Acevedo contacted a 13-year-old girl via TikTok, claiming to be a 17-year-old boy, and asked for her phone number. He then began texting the victim, asking her to send nude pictures of herself to him, and eventually coerced the victim to engage in sexual conduct over video chat. Acevedo also asked for her address, although she did not give it to him. He later solicited other children online on other platforms, pretending to be a pre-teen or teenage girl, and asked them to provide him with nude pictures.

Acevedo's undoing in the Ohio case came when the girl's mother found some of the explicit photos on her daughter's phone and went to her local police department.

Saris urged the federal Bureau of Prisons to lock Acevedo up at Devens, in part because it has a sex-offender treatment program.

In a sentencing recommendation, Acevedo's attorney, Forest O'Neill-Greenberg, said his client has struggled much of his life with undiagnosed mental problems and is "remorseful, ashamed, and fully cognizant of the harms he has caused the victim in this case," but that he was ready to accept a 20-year sentence:

This is a harsh and significant term of imprisonment that will incarcerate Mr. Acevedo until he is in his fifties.

He said that Acevedo's behavior was driven not by pedophilia - he has never physically touched any of his victims, including in the 2014 case - but by "his own low functioning social and interpersonal abilities, coupled with a mood disorder and pervasive difficulties with healthy interpersonal connection, and issues of low self-esteem and self-worth."

He continued this was only exacerbated after Acevedo's release from state prison in October, 2020 by both his mother's death the next month and the social limitations caused by the pandemic:

The intense feelings of guilt and worthlessness that Mr. Acevedo experienced after his mother's passing were only compounded by the challenges of life brought about during the COVID-19 Pandemic, which in turn exacerbated his depression further, lead to extreme self-isolation, and fostered an unhealthy focus on connecting with others, often exclusively, via the internet. Ultimately, this toxic combination of factors influenced Mr. Acevedo's return to his patterns of unhealthy internet interactions, which included his behaviors and choice to engage with the minor victim in this case. It is behavior that he takes full responsibility for and which he is committed to doing the work necessary to understand the impetus for his offending, engage in long-term sex offender treatment, and successfully complete the years of supervised release that he will be subjected to.

Prosecutors, however, did not buy it, and said a long sentence was necessary "to protect the public, particularly vulnerable children" and that Acevedo's problems were not so severe he could not "set up multiple online profiles on multiple platforms, deceive children about his age and gender, and successfully obtain child pornography from them."

Receipt of child pornography by a recidivist is a serious crime with a serious impact on the child who was a victim of the crime. However, Acevedo's conduct here is even more serious than the "typical" version of this crime. That is because Acevedo did not simply receive child pornography – he solicited it from children online, after previously being convicted of the same thing and being classified as a Level 3 Sex Offender by virtue of that offense. Just months after being released from prison in October 2020 for obtaining child pornography from a 12-year-old girl he had contacted online and threatening to kill her family if she did not send nude pictures, he again actively sought out minor children over the internet using multiple platforms.

He lied about his age and sometimes his gender (claiming at various times to be a 12, 13, or 14- year-old girl) and attempted to convince children to provide him with nude pictures of themselves. In particular, after lying and claiming he was a 17-year-old boy, he successfully solicited Minor A, a 13-year-old girl who had told him she was 13, to send him naked pictures of herself and to engage in sexual activity over videochat for him to view for his sexual gratification, while he concealed his face from her. He also asked Minor A for her address and said that he was going to send his buddy and at one point said he'd "take u somewhere [her dad] won't find us"; thankfully, she did not give her real address. Nonetheless, her life will never be the same as a result of Acevedo's conduct.