About the only piece of evidence the prosecution didn’t have in the murder case against 20-year-old Patrick Fluker was an eyewitness testifying that he was seen shooting 29-year-old Tiffany Mendez in the head.A Fort Wayne man was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison Monday for sexual exploitation of a minor and distributing child pornography.
Christopher Ramirez, 34, of the 400 block of Greenwood Avenue, pleaded guilty in November to two counts of a multicount federal indictment charging him with producing and distributing child pornography.
The third count of the indictment was dismissed as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge William C. Lee in Fort Wayne sentenced Ramirez to 20 years on each of the two charges but ordered the sentences to be served at the same time, according to court documents.
Lee also ordered Ramirez to serve five years on supervised release. Ramirez will serve his prison sentence at a federal facility in Texas.
He also forfeited a laptop computer and a digital camera, according to court documents.
Ramirez admitted to downloading and storing child pornography on his computer and admitted to having sexual contact with a 10-year-old girl – performing sex acts on her and having sex with her, according to court documents in both the state and federal case.
He told police and federal agents he took sexually explicit pictures of the girl while she was wearing a dress but deleted the photographs and did not distribute them, according to federal court documents.
Ramirez also faces state charges in connection with the molestation of the girl in the photographs.
Feds file drug cases
Three men arrested after a traffic stop last week face federal charges in connection with a raid on a suspected drug house.
Authorities arrested Joel Flores-Lopez, Marcos Ilban Navarro-Soto and Carlos Alberto Penvelas-Rodriguez on Thursday.
Along with Fort Wayne police detectives, agents with the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration were watching a house in the 600 block of Lillian Avenue. Two men carrying suitcases left the house and got into a car, which was subsequently pulled over by police.
Flores-Lopez was driving the car.
Police found more than $40,000 in one of the suitcases and more than 85 pounds of marijuana inside the house. A gun was also found, according to federal documents.
The men were charged in a federal criminal complaint, accusing them of maintaining a place for the purpose of distributing marijuana, according to court documents.
Mom admits neglect
Convicted by a judge of one count of child neglect, Julianna Williams, 29, pleaded guilty to the one remaining count against her Monday morning.
Her plea comes about a week after her mother, Rosalie Ford, 54, pleaded guilty to two counts of neglect of a dependent.
The two women were charged with multiple counts of neglect of a dependent, including neglect of a dependent causing death, after the death of Williams’ 13-month-old daughter, Regjanae, in the summer of 2008. The girl died of a fatal overdose of morphine.
Ford was known to mishandle and abuse prescription drugs, and Williams was accused of leaving her children with Ford in spite of the danger, court documents say.
Allen Superior Judge John Surbeck found, though, that there was not enough evidence to support the prosecutors’ allegations that the environment contributed to the girl’s death. He found Williams guilty in a bench trial of the lesser charge against her.
Both women will be sentenced in April.
