The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Andre R. Watson of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore; Special Agent in Charge Clark E. Settles of HSI Washington D.C.; Calvert County Sheriff Mike Evans; and Colonel William M. Pallozzi, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police.
According to his plea agreement, from at least December 2014 through July 2015, Jaramillo, posing as teenaged male named, "Tommy James," "Thomas James Jones," or "Thomas James," used email, applications on cellular phones and social media sites to induce, coerce and entice more than five minor female victims between the ages of 13 and 16 to send him sexually explicit images of themselves over the internet.
Jaramillo admitted that, using the "Tommy James" persona, he engaged in or attempted to engage in, sexually explicit conversations with at least 14 minor females and induced at least seven victims to produce sexually explicit images and videos of themselves and transmit those images to Jaramillo.
As part of his plea agreement, Jaramillo must register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).
Jaramillo and the government have agreed that if the Court accepts the plea agreement Jaramillo will be sentenced to between 15 and 19 years in prison, followed by up to a lifetime of supervised release. U.S. District Judge Paul W. Grimm has scheduled sentencing for September 21, 2016 at 9:30 a.m.
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.justice.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "resources" tab on the left of the page.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended HSI Baltimore and Washington, D.C, the Calvert County Sheriff's Office, and the Maryland State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ray D. McKenzie and Kristi N. O'Malley, who are prosecuting the case.