A 28-year-old Lubbock, Texas man has pleaded guilty to coercing and enticing a minor after driving more than 600 miles to Tucson, Arizona, to carry out a relationship he built online over eight months. Juan Jose Castillo now faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in federal prison, with a maximum sentence of life, when he is sentenced in November.
According to court documents summarized by the U.S. Department of Justice, Castillo communicated online with the minor victim between February 2024 and October 2024, an eight-month stretch of digital contact before he ever crossed into Arizona. As reported by KVOA, Castillo traveled to Arizona on October 18, 2024, with the intent to engage in sexual activity with the minor, and he did so before returning to Texas on October 21, 2024.
The distance Castillo covered to reach his victim was substantial. Per PacerMonitor, the route from Lubbock to Tucson spans more than 600 miles across state lines, a detail that establishes the interstate travel element required for federal jurisdiction under the statute Castillo pleaded guilty to violating.
Federal Investigators Built Case Around Digital Trail
Homeland Security Investigations’ Tucson office led the federal probe that produced Castillo’s guilty plea, the Department of Justice announcement notes. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nathaniel J. Walters and Alessandra C. Bermudez of the District of Arizona are prosecuting the case, filed under docket number CR-25-01804-TUC-JGZ in the federal court in Tucson…