A 28-year-old Cheyenne man who describes images of child pornography as “interesting and weird” faces five charges related to his alleged interest in the material following a three-month investigation by the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office.
Court records made available Tuesday show that an arrest warrant has been issued for Alfredo I. Najera on five counts of sexual exploitation of a child by possessing child pornography. All of the alleged possession occurrences are dated March 15 and 16.
An affidavit in the case shows that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a report from the messaging application Kik that one of its users was suspected to be in possession of child pornography.
The report was sent to the Wyoming Internet Crimes Against Children and assigned to a Laramie County Sheriff’s Office detective.
The tip from Kik identified an email address for the person’s Kik account that was traced to Najera. The cyber tip indicated that the account had uploaded suspected child pornography.
A search warrant of Najera’s account revealed images that he uploaded or shared with others.
The affidavit states that a second cyber tip from Kik in April also was traced to a different email address and usernames associated with Najera.
The account and username associated with Najera showed he uploaded in a private chat message 12 files identified as potential child pornography to another user.
Images allegedly uploaded by Najera for which he is charged include:
• A 10-year-old female involved in a sexual act with an adult man.
• An 11- or 12-year-old female engaged in sexual conduct in a bathtub.
• A 10-year-old female exposing her genitals and engaged in a sexual act.
• Another 11-year-old female exposing her genitals to the camera and performing a sexual act.
• Yet another 11-year-old female showing similar sexual conduct.
Selfie Photos
The investigation also found several selfie photos associated with Najera’s account of a female in her late teenage years taking partially nude photos of herself, the affidavit states.
During the execution of a search warrant on Najera’s Cheyenne residence July 15, he admitted to the investigator that he uses Kik and has had several accounts.
Najera said he had been using Kik since he was a “kid” and has “viewed child pornography” but could not recall “soliciting it.”
He told the investigator that he does not distribute child pornography.
“Najera admitted that he ‘hoards’ child pornography files and downloads it to his phone,” the affidavit states. “He finds it interesting and weird.”
At the end of the interview with the investigator, Najera told him that he probably possessed “hundreds” of pornography files. He also told the investigator he understood it was illegal, the affidavit states.
Najera said that he has used Kik to communicate with “random people.”
When asked about the photos of the older teen girl who was partially nude, Najera told the investigator that they were photos of an old high school girlfriend that she had sent to him.
He said he liked to “catfish” people — or deceive them — while using them to portray himself as a 16-year-old girl to other Kik users.
The affidavit states that Najera was “unsure” if people were more willing to share child pornography with him when he pretended to be a 16-year-old girl.
Each of the five counts of sexual exploitation of a child carry a potential penalty of 10 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
