Local Cook Heads To Prison For Soliciting A Child For Sex

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Corpus Christi resident Daniel Ricardo Barrientos, 30, has been ordered to federal prison following his conviction of soliciting a child for sex through the Internet, United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced today.  A Corpus Christi federal jury convicted Barrientos on March 7, 2013, after a two-day trial.

Today, Senior U.S. District Judge Hayden Head, who presided over the trial, handed Barrientos a 121-month sentence. At the hearing, Judge Head stated that the sentence imposed was necessary to protect the public. Barrientos will also be required to serve a term of 15 years of supervised release following completion of the prison term, during which time he will be required to comply with numerous conditions that restrict his access to children and the Internet. He must also register as a sex offender.

During his jury trial, the government called several witnesses detailing the offense. The jury learned that Barrientos, a cook at a local chain restaurant, had communicated via email, text and telephone conversations with an undercover officer of the Corpus Christi Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (CCPD-ICAC). The officer had portrayed herself as a single mother of two daughters ages 12 and 14 who was interested in having her children engage in sexual acts with an adult to which Barrientos responded with his desire to perform various sexual acts with the children.

Barrientos has been in custody since his arrest on Dec. 7, 2012, where he will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

Homeland Security Investigations and CCPD-ICAC conducted the investigation in a joint effort to protect children from child predators.

This case, prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lance Duke, 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."