Oneco Man Found Guilty Of Attempted Child Enticement

Tampa, Florida – United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announces that a federal jury found Erasmo Aguinaga (36, Oneco) guilty today of attempted child enticement. He faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for December 12, 2014, at 2:30 p.m. Aguinaga was indicted on April 25, 2013. 

According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, on March 23, 2013, Aguinaga used a cellular telephone to induce what he believed was a 14-year-old girl to engage in illegal sexual acts. The individual whom he believed to be a minor was actually an undercover law enforcement officer. Aguinaga drove to what he believed was the minor’s home and was arrested. 

This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the St. Petersburg Police Department, and the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Amanda C. Kaiser.

It is another case 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 (CEOS), 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.projectsafechildhood.gov.