A South Richmond Hill man was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison on Thursday for five counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor and two counts of distributing child pornography while being a registered sex offender.
Davis Burgos-Collazo, 45, of Atlantic Avenue, was convicted by a jury following a one-week trial in Brooklyn federal court in July 2022.
According to the government’s sentencing memorandum and related court proceedings, in 2020, Burgos-Collazo used at least 26 Instagram accounts to attempt to exploit children as young as nine years old sexually. He would entice the victims by pretending to be a modeling scout and by using accounts with names like “future models” and “preteen beauty pics.” After Burgos-Collazo compelled a ten-year-old victim into performing live sex acts for him on Instagram, she begged him to leave her alone. Instead, Burgos-Collazo threatened to post a naked picture of her online for her friends to see if she refused to provide him with additional sexually explicit materials.
“It has been proven that the defendant is an extremely dangerous predator, who, while being a registered sex offender, coerced a ten-year-old child to perform sex acts for him on Instagram and threatened the child when she pleaded that he leave her alone,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said. “And sadly, she was not the only vulnerable victim.”
The FBI recovered more than 100 photos and videos of child pornography on Burgos-Collazo’s cell phone. He committed these crimes while he was a registered sex offender after he was convicted in 2006 of sexually abusing and attempting to sexually abuse multiple minors, all of whom were under the age of 11 and one as young as seven.
U.S. District Judge Pamela K. Chen sentenced Burgos-Collazo to 45 years in federal prison and ordered him to pay $33,000 in restitution.
“With today’s sentence, the goal of incapacitating this master manipulator and sextortionist has been achieved,” Peace said. “We are dedicated to protecting our children from those who weaponize social media in order to sexually exploit and harm them.”
