Silver City Sex Offender Charged in Child Porn Case

Michael Ray Sepulveda, 38, of Silver City, N.M., is back behind bars — and this time, the feds are coming down hard. A U.S. Magistrate Judge in Las Cruces found probable cause this morning to support a criminal complaint charging Sepulveda with child exploitation and child pornography. He remains locked up pending trial, facing a stacked sentence due to his past as a registered sex offender.

Sepulveda was arrested Oct. 28, 2016, after a federal complaint revealed he allegedly used an online social networking site to lure a 14-year-old boy into producing and sending sexually explicit images. Posing as a 16-year-old girl, Sepulveda engaged in graphic communications with the victim between July and November 2015, sending lewd photos and coercing the teen to respond in kind. He also tried — but failed — to meet the child in person for sexual activity.

The investigation began in the summer of 2016, not because of a tip directly naming Sepulveda, but because law enforcement stumbled upon his digital trail while pursuing unrelated criminal conduct. The evidence, laid out in court filings, paints a calculated predator: hiding behind a false identity, exploiting a minor’s vulnerability, and trafficking in child pornography across state lines via the internet.

If convicted on the charge of enticing a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity, Sepulveda faces a statutory mandatory minimum of 10 years and up to life in prison. On the child pornography charge, he faces a minimum of 25 years and a maximum of 50 years. His prior conviction on a child sex crime triggers these enhanced penalties — meaning his return to predatory behavior came with a far heavier price.

This case was jointly investigated by the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI, and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) out of Las Cruces. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dustin Segovia is leading the prosecution as part of Project Safe Childhood, the DOJ’s nationwide initiative launched in 2006 to target online child sexual exploitation. The program unites federal, state, and local forces to track down predators and rescue victims before more harm is done.

The case also falls under the mission of the New Mexico ICAC Task Force, a coalition of 86 law enforcement agencies dedicated to capturing internet-based child predators. Funded through the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office, the task force urges anyone with information about suspected child abuse or online predators to come forward. For now, Sepulveda sits in custody — a registered sex offender facing the full wrath of federal justice.