Trigger Warning: Child Sexual Abuse
Man Pleads Guilty to 2 Child Sexual Abuse Felonies After Inappropriately Touching, Text Messaging Child in 2024
NORFOLK, Va. — Wilfredo Montoya, 54, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to taking indecent liberties with a minor and using a phone to facilitate offenses against a child after he inappropriately touched a 13-year-old girl and sent her sexual text messages last year.
On Oct. 3, 2024, Mr. Montoya approached the 13-year-old girl on the sidewalk near her house while he was walking his dog. Mr. Montoya asked the girl if she wanted to hold his dog, and when he handed over the leash, Mr. Montoya touched her breast. Mr. Montoya then asked for the girl’s phone number under the pretense of needing it to contact an adult. Later that evening and into the next day, Mr. Montoya sent the girl multiple sexually explicit text messages, he sent a picture of his penis and other pornographic images, and he asked the girl to send pictures of herself, which she declined to do.
The girl later told her mother about Mr. Montoya’s conduct, and her mother called Norfolk Police, who set up an interview for the girl with child forensic specialists and extracted data from the girl’s phone containing Mr. Montoya’s messages. Based on their investigation, the police secured warrants against Mr. Montoya for taking indecent liberties with a minor and using a communications system to facilitate offenses against a child — both felonies.
On Wednesday, Mr. Montoya entered an agreement to plead guilty to one count of each charge, register as a sex offender, be banned from a one-mile radius of the girl’s home, and have his sentence left to the sole discretion of the deciding judge. Judge Robert B. Rigney accepted Mr. Montoya’s plea agreement and set his sentencing hearing on June 27.
“Mr. Montoya victimized a teenaged girl, and he tried to groom her to victimize her further,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “Mr. Montoya faces time in prison and will rightly have to register as a sex offender. We appreciate the cooperation of the survivor and her mother in helping us to prosecute Mr. Montoya for what he has done and in helping us protect others from his actions.”
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Keith M. Proctor is prosecuting Mr. Montoya’s case, and Norfolk Police Detective Tristan L. Wampler led the investigation.
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