Belen man sentenced to decades in prison in child sex abuse case

A Belen man who investigators said sexually assaulted an underage relative and a neighbor and who was found in possession of copious amounts of child sexual abuse material was sentenced recently to about three decades in prison.

Anthony Maestas, 24, agreed to a plea deal in which he admitted to both possessing and manufacturing child sexual abuse material, voyeurism and two counts of child abuse.

A document outlining Maestas’ sentence lays out a total term to be served of 30 1/2 years, but if added individually, the terms for each charge add up to 29 1/2 years. It was not immediately clear which figure was correct.

New Mexico Department of Justice spokesperson Lauren Rodriguez, whose agency investigated and prosecuted the case, lauded Maestas’ sentence, the maximum possible under his plea deal.

“Attorney General [Raúl] Torrez has made protecting New Mexico’s children a top priority, and this case reflects his continued commitment to using every available tool to safeguard our communities,” Rodriguez wrote in an email. “He will continue to support aggressive investigations and prosecutions in these cases while working to improve the broader child welfare system statewide.”

An attorney for Maestas did not respond to requests for comment.

The state Department of Justice first learned of the crimes eventually linked to Maestas on Dec. 7, 2023, based on a tip submitted in mid-November to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The tip came from the mobile messaging app known as Kik and the company behind it.

Five more months passed before a 13th Judicial District judge on May 13, 2024, approved a search warrant for three online or internet service accounts associated with the original tip.

Asked about the delay, Rodriguez, in a written statement, said the Department of Justice conducted “a thorough preliminary investigation” that included conducting interviews and obtaining corroborating evidence.

“Once we had the necessary evidence to support probable cause, we filed and executed a search warrant,” she wrote.

Through the search warrant on the Kik account, investigators found 381 pieces of child sexual abuse material, and another 179 they categorized as “child erotica” or as depicting a person whose age was difficult to determine. The 381 files included video of children being sexually assaulted.

Investigators then obtained a search warrant for a home in Belen, where they found Maestas. In his room, they found a phone, which contained files depicting children under 13 performing sexual acts, according to the affidavit.

In a news release, the department said investigators discovered Maestas had also “sexually abused at least two children — a family member and a neighbor — as a juvenile.”