Child-porn case nets 15 years

Video uploaded to social media leads police to LR man

A Little Rock man who was arrested with child pornography including depictions of bestiality has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Oscar "Chino" Marquez, 28, must also register as a sex offender, according to sentencing papers filed on Thursday by deputy prosecutor Jayme Butts-Hall.

Marquez pleaded guilty to five counts of possession of matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child, each charge a Class C felony that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims. Under the conditions of his plea agreement, negotiated by defense attorney Leo Monterrey, prosecutors dropped two other counts.

Little Rock police arrested Marquez on Jan. 23 after an investigation lasting about 5½ months, court filings show. He has been jailed ever since.

The police probe began Aug. 5, 2018, after Little Rock detective Amber Kalmer was alerted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that Facebook detected a video with possibly illicit material uploaded to the social media network two days earlier, court filings show.

A Facebook account under the name "Chino El Maravilloso" uploaded a two-minute video to Facebook Messenger and shared it with 10 other users. The video depicted a girl performing sex acts alone.

Police obtained a court order the next month to require AT&T Internet Services to provide subscriber records for the Internet account used to access Facebook, which led police to the home of Marquez' girlfriend.

Police put the residence on Lewis Street under surveillance for a week in October, documenting the cars at the home and computer networks in the neighborhood.

On Oct. 23, police went to the home with a search warrant and collected Marquez' cellphones. A subsequent examination of the phones by the FBI found seven child-pornography videos, and police obtained an arrest warrant for Marquez on Jan. 17. He was taken into custody six days later.

NW News on 09/22/2019

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