A Springfield man has been sentenced to five years in prison for receiving child pornography and assaulting a federal immigration officer.
Jhoan Esau Lemus Ramos, 23, was sentenced by a federal judge yesterday (Thursday) after he pleaded guilty to both charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced.
According to court documents, Lemus Ramos pressured a teen girl into sending him explicit photos for months after raping her in a Herndon parking lot in March 2022. He first contacted her on SnapChat in February of that year when he was 19 and she was 13, though she allegedly told him she was 17.
After the assault through at least August 2022, Lemus Ramos asked the girl to send him sexually explicit photos of herself that he then used to threaten her and “force her to continue having sex with him after she wanted to stop seeing him,” prosecutors said in a statement of facts filed on March 21.
“The threats only stopped when the victim contacted Herndon Police for help,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a press release.
The Herndon Police Department arrested Lemus Ramos on July 18, 2023 and charged him with carnal knowledge of a child aged 13 to 15 and possessing and manufacturing child pornography, according to the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office.
However, he was released from the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center later that night after paying $1,000 bonds for each of the three charges imposed by a magistrate. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) accused the sheriff’s office of ignoring a criminal detainer it obtained that day for Lemus Ramos, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras who came to the U.S. in 2021.
The sheriff’s office denied the allegation, stating that it had checked for outstanding detainers or warrants and found none.
Lemus Ramos was later arrested on Jan. 4, 2024 by ICE deportation officers in Springfield, which is listed as his residence in court documents. During the arrest, he punched one of the officers in the face, giving the agent “a bloody left eye,” according to the statement of facts.
“As a result of the assault, O-1 received medical care at a medical facility,” the statement says, referring to the officer. “O-1 sustained swelling, bruising and a laceration of his left eye/eyebrow, which required stitches.”
The case was elevated to federal prosecutors, who obtained an indictment for assaulting a federal officer from a grand jury on Feb. 7 and filed a receipt of child porn charge. The U.S. Attorney’s Office noted in its statement that the photos were taken on a cell phone not made in Virginia and sent via “a facility of interstate and foreign commerce,” meaning the internet.
According to a plea agreement filed on March 21, Lemus Ramos admitted that he “is in fact guilty of the charged offenses” and that the facts laid out by prosecutors could establish his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
As part of the agreement, prosecutors committed to recommending a sentence on the lower end of what federal guidelines allow. The assault charge carries up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine, while the child porn charge could result in five to 20 years in prison, along with at least five years of supervised release, at least $3,000 in restitution to the victim and a $250,000 fine, among other penalties.
Prosecutors requested 60 months of prison time on each count to run concurrently, followed by five years of supervised release and $3,000 in restitution, according to a June 18 court document.
With the plea agreement, Lemus Ramos was granted immunity from further criminal prosecution by the federal government in relation to this case, but immigration-related proceedings will be conducted separately. He will be registered as a sex offender, and he also agreed to pay $200 in special assessments.
The state-level charges were dismissed on April 23 by the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office after Lemus Ramos’s conviction, the U.S. Attorney’s Office says.
The carnal knowledge charge — a class four felony in Virginia that could lead to two to 10 years of prison time and a fine of up to $100,000 — technically could’ve still been pursued, but he’s expected to be deported after his prison sentence.
A lawyer listed as Lemus Ramos’s defense attorney didn’t return requests for comment by press time.
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