Mexican National Sentenced to 17 Years for Child Sexual Exploitation

DOJ Press

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Mexican national who was illegally in the United States has been sentenced in federal court for soliciting pornographic images and videos from an 11-year-old victim over Facebook Messenger.

Alejandrino Velazquez-Hernandez, 34, of Springfield, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool on Tuesday, Aug. 16, to 17 years and six months in federal prison without parole. Velazquez-Hernandez had been ordered removed from the United States on Nov. 19, 2013, after failing to appear for his immigration hearing.

On Feb. 8, 2022, Velazquez-Hernandez pleaded guilty to the sexual exploitation of a child. Velazquez-Hernandez admitted that he used an 11-year-old child, identified in court documents as “Jane Doe,” to produce child pornography in Greene County, Mo., from Oct. 1, 2020, through April 1, 2021.

Velazquez-Hernandez communicated with the child victim on the Facebook Messenger application, through which she sent him pornographic images and videos at his request. They made several plans to meet but they were never able to be alone.   


This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie L. Wan. It was investigated by the Greene County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department, Homeland Security Investigations, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Springfield, Mo., Police Department.


Project Safe Childhood

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

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