Maryland Man Pleads Guilty to Sexually Abusing 12-Year-Old

            WASHINGTON – Enrique Carbajal, 25, of Wheaton, Md., pled guilty today to a charge of first-degree sexual abuse of a child for sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl earlier this year in Northwest Washington, U.S. Attorney Channing Phillips announced.

            Carbajal pled guilty in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia before the Honorable José M. Lopez.  The plea, which is subject to the Court’s approval, calls for a prison sentence of 90 months. Judge Lopez set a sentencing date for Nov. 29, 2016. In addition to prison time, Carbajal will be required to register as a sex offender for ten years.

            According to the government’s evidence, on March 26, 2016, Carbajal contacted the victim’s mother to ask whether he could come to her house in Northwest Washington to have lunch with the child.  When the mother told him that the child was not likely to be home, he went there regardless. At about noon that day, the child opened the door and allowed Carbajal to come inside.  He then sexually assaulted the child inside of her parent’s bedroom.  At the conclusion of the assault, Carbajal took the victim to his apartment in Wheaton.

            Once inside the apartment, Carbajal approached his roommate with the victim and described her as “a piece of new meat.”  According to the government’s evidence, the roommate then took the victim into a bedroom and sexually assaulted the child.  Then, both Carbajal and the roommate took the child to a party in Alexandria, Va., where the roommate once again sexually assaulted the child inside a bedroom.

            Both Carbajal and the roommate were arrested in Montgomery County, Md., on June 3, 2016, and have been held in jail during the pendency of their cases.  The roommate pled guilty to one count of second-degree rape in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County on Aug. 17, 2016.  He will be sentenced on Nov. 21, 2016, before the Honorable Mary McCormick.

            In announcing the guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Phillips commended the work performed by those who investigated the case from the FBI's Child Exploitation Task Force, the Metropolitan Police Department’s Youth Division, the Special Victims Investigation Division of the Montgomery County, Md.  Department of Police, the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office in Maryland, and the Office of the Commonwealth Attorney in Alexandria, Va.  He also acknowledged the work of those who handled the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Paralegal Specialists Tiffany Jones and Lashaune Briggs, Victim/Witness Advocate Yvonne Bryant, Witness Security Specialist Michael Hailey, and Computer Forensic Examiner John Marsh.  Finally, he expressed appreciation for the work of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lindsay Suttenberg and Danny Nguyen, who investigated and prosecuted the matter.