Michael Martinez, 28, of Fort Worth, Texas, but formerly of Phoenix, Arizona, was sentenced Monday by United States District Judge Diane J. Humetewa to 40 years in prison. Martinez pleaded guilty on March 8, 2023, to three counts of Producing Child Pornography, involving three minors, ages 7, 5, and 3. When Martinez is released from prison, he will be on supervised release for the remainder of his life.
In 2016, when Martinez was 22 years old, he lived in Phoenix, Arizona, in a house with Child Doe 1 (age 7). As an acquaintance of Child Doe 1’s mother, Martinez had access to Child Doe 1 and took sexually explicit pictures and videos of the minor in January 2016. Later in 2016, Martinez moved residences and lived with Child Doe 2 (age 5) and Child Doe 3 (age 3), because he was a roommate of the minors’ mother. In this house, Martinez acted as a babysitter where he had access to the minors and took sexually explicit pictures and videos of both of them in November 2016. Further, Martinez admitted engaging in sex acts with the three minors. In 2022, Martinez was arrested in Texas where he had moved in 2017 after these events.
“The pain and harm caused to these victims is irreparable,” said Gary Restaino, United States Attorney for the District of Arizona. “The court’s sentence sends a strong message of deterrence to those who seek to hurt children.”
“Children deserve to feel and be safe in their homes,” said Myron T. Byrd, acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Phoenix field office. “Today’s sentencing should bring some closure to the families knowing this predator will be in federal prison for a very long time. I want to thank the members of the FBI Phoenix Crimes Against Children Squad for their work on this case and their commitment to protecting our children to ensure justice is served for them,” Byrd added.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
The case was investigated by the Phoenix Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Phoenix Division, Dallas Division, and FBI Headquarters). Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gayle L. Helart and Brett A. Day, District of Arizona, Phoenix, handled the prosecution.
