West Chicago Man Sentenced To 10 Years In Federal Prison For Transporting A Minor Interstate For Criminal Sexual Purposes

CHICAGO ― A West Chicago man was sentenced Monday to the maximum of 10 years in federal prison for transporting a minor for criminal sexual purposes.  The defendant, NICACIO JAIMES-MORENO, 52, pled guilty in October 2014, to one count of knowingly transporting a minor interstate with the intent to engage in sexual activity.  The defendant has been in federal custody since the filing of charges August 2013. 

At the sentencing hearing, a victim impact statement was read to U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp describing the traumatic damage that Jaimes-Moreno inflicted upon the victim’s life.  “The defendant engaged in serious criminal conduct that has caused lasting and immeasurable harm to his victim,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Ebert argued in seeking the highest sentence possible in the Government’s Sentencing Memorandum.  “Further compounding the trauma inflicted by defendant, he was a parental figure to the victim, and she was very much in defendant’s custody, care, and supervisory control throughout the time defendant was sexually assaulting her.”

According to court documents, the defendant began sexually abusing the victim at age 11 and continued the abuse for over four years in various places the defendant lived with the victim and her mother throughout Mexico, Oklahoma, Indiana and Illinois; all while not allowing the victim to attend school.  Further, court records describe that during the years the defendant was sexually assaulting the victim, he prevented her from telling anyone that he was assaulting her and she was only allowed outside when chaperoned by defendant.

Judge Tharp imposed the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.  Jaimes-Moreno was also ordered to three years supervised court supervision but is subject to deportation upon release from custody because he is not a United States citizen. He must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence.  There is no parole in the federal prison system.

The sentence was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois and Robert J. Holley, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew Ebert and Rachel Cannon.