An 18-year-old Bellevue man is facing charges after allegedly communicating with a minor on Snapchat and then molesting her, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (KCPAO).
Carlos Daniel Montufar Jimenez was charged with first-degree child molestation and communication with a minor for immoral purposes on April 19.
His bail is set at $250,000. The prosecuting attorney’s office also said he is not allowed to have any contact with minors, nor any unsupervised internet usage.
Between March 25 to April 14, Jimenez allegedly communicated with a 9-year-old girl — who he believed to be 11 years old — through Snapchat for the immoral purposes of sexual nature, according to charging documents.
On March 25, the girl skipped her afterschool activities and walked into downtown Bellevue where she met Jimenez. The girl’s mother realized her daughter wasn’t where she should be, demanded to know where she was, and picked her up in downtown Bellevue, documents state.
Bellevue Police Department documents relay how her mother noticed a hickey on the girl’s neck, and that she was lying about her whereabouts. The 9-year-old said she met a man named ‘Danny’ who gave her the hickey and kissed her.
When officers became involved, they reviewed the girl’s Snapchat history with ‘Danny,’ which showed how she believed ‘Danny’ to be her boyfriend and that she was in love with him, according to police documents.
The documents also state Jimenez allegedly initiated their conversations about kissing, meeting up, flirting, and telling her that he loved her. The review of the Snapchat communications showed they reportedly met in person on two occasions, and it was apparent to officers that physical contact occurred, such as touching and kissing- which the girl was uncomfortable with, according to Bellevue Police Department documents.
Police documents relay how Jimenez apologized and encouraged her to ‘try’ even though she ‘doesn’t know how,’ and he allegedly admits to giving her a hickey, which he also apologized for.
“It needs to be noted that throughout their conversation, there are numerous context clues about the age and maturity of [the girl] that would lead a reasonable person to deduce that the victim is a young child and also indicated ‘Danny’ is aware of the child’s young age,” police documents stated.
A Bellevue police detective on the case met with the girl and noted she appears to be “prepubescent” —an elementary school aged girl. The department wrote a one-party consent order to take over the girl’s Snapchat account and to communicate with ‘Danny’ on her behalf, during which the defendant believed he was still communicating with the child.
According to police documents, throughout his communication with the undercover officer, Jimenez allegedly mentioned he had a “perverted mind,” and didn’t want to “take things too far,” with her.
Jimenez then allegedly arranged for the 9-year-old to walk to his apartment where they would have sex on the afternoon of April 14. That day he was running late from getting a haircut, and instead asked the girl to meet him the following day.
On April 14, Jimenez was taken into custody, where he agreed to a voluntarily recorded statement in an interview room, according to police documents. Investigators told him they were on the Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce and asked why they thought he was speaking to police officers, to which he told police he saw a “child pornography” video on TikTok.
Police documents stated that he was unable to open the child pornography TikTok video but later went back to search for the video twice using the phone’s internet search browser, Safari. He described how the video depicted a young girl being sexually tortured, and he used terms such as “child pornography” and “abuse” but was unable to locate the same video, according to the documents.
“He stated that he only wanted to see that video again because he wanted to know how bad people can be,” police documents noted.
According to the documents, he also allegedly told investigators he’s searched and watched numerous videos of animals being tortured to also see how bad people can be.
Investigators confirmed that his Snapchat name was ‘Danny,’ in addition to the messages he sent to the 9-year-old girl. Investigators also confirmed that he was 17 years old when he met the girl, that he said he liked her because of her pretty face, and that he allegedly said he would have sex with her if she wanted to, according to police documents.
During the recorded statement, Jimenez said he learned about the age of consent while in school and from his parents, and understood that it was illegal to have sex with someone as young as the girl.
Jimenez’s next hearing is at 8:30 a.m. Monday, May 2 at the King County Courthouse.