GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A Connecticut man was sentenced to 28 years in prison following a trial in Grand Rapids, Mich. for sexually exploiting a child, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan.
Kristian Ignacio Feliz, 24, developed an online relationship with a 12-year-old girl living in Kalamazoo, Mich. while he was studying quantum physics as a 23-year-old graduate student living in Barcelona, Spain, prosecutors said.
Feliz told the girl he loved her and called her his “little wife” while repeatedly pressuring her to create and send him pornographic videos, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said that in January 2023, Feliz traveled to Kalamazoo and recorded videos of himself abusing the girl in her home over the course of three days; after he left town, he advised the girl to sell the videos online and send him the money.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs to arrange for Feliz’s provisional arrest with a plan to seek extradition soon after, prosecutors said.
“Every child deserves to grow up safe, healthy and free from abuse,” Totten said, in the release. “In this case, a sexual predator living abroad targeted a child in Kalamazoo, traveled here to abuse her and then left the country. Working closely with state, federal and international partners, we made sure Feliz was hauled back to Michigan to face justice in our courts. Let today’s sentence serve as a warning that my office takes the protection of children extremely seriously.”
Prosecutors said the case is part of Project Safe childhood, a national endeavor meant to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Federal, state, tribal and local law enforcement agencies team up to educate local communities about the dangers of online sexual exploitation and to teach children how to protect themselves.
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Dalton Zbierski is a digital content producer and writer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dzbierski@FOX61.com.
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