A Florida man was sentenced to 32 years in prison for luring three Arizona minors into sexual exploitation through a popular online video game.
According to a statement from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, Jacob Lozano, 24, was sentenced on Friday to 17 years for one act of sexual exploitation and 15 years for another count of sexual exploitation, to be served concurrently.
During the sentencing hearing, one of the victim’s fathers discussed Lozano’s impact on his family.
“It was as if our own home had been broken into, but there was no broken lock, there was no broken glass, but make no mistake, our home was forever broken from that moment on. The tears, the doubt, the hundreds of hours of counseling, nothing has healed the house ever since,” he said.
Scottsdale police launched an investigation after a mother discovered sexually explicit images on her 11-year-old son’s phone and alerted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. A man in Florida sent the photographs, they discovered.
According to court documents, Lozano met three boys while playing Fortnite online, pretending to be 16 years old.
According to court filings, after making contact, Lozano switched from in-game chat to Discord, a gaming communication network.
Detectives took over one of the victims’ accounts and continued the conversation with Lozano, which ended with Lozano providing a total of twenty videos and photographs of sexually explicit material, including kids.
During sentencing, Lozano told the court he would change and apologized directly to the families while citing bible verses. “Colossians 3:9-10 and Ephesians 4:23-24 say, to strip your old personality and clothe yourself with a new to continue to be made new in your dominant mental attitude. I will strive to do just that, to cause lasting change, and I have the support with me. I have a lot of work ahead of me, but with the support of my family and my friends, I know that I can change,” he said.
Lozano pled guilty in December to three counts of luring juveniles and two counts of sexual exploitation, according to court records.
For three counts of enticing minors, he also received a life sentence on probation.