Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News (b)
Spokane, Washington – Acting United States Attorney Richard R. Barker announced that United States District Judge Thomas O. Rice sentenced Daniel Augustine Solis, age, 33, to 40 years in federal prison for producing and distributing child sexual abuse material. Judge Rice also imposed a lifetime of supervised release and restitution of $615.00
Judge Rice presided over a criminal trial for Solis, which began November 4, 2024. On the second day of trial, Solis pleaded guilty after the United States presented evidence of a text conversation between Solis and his co-defendant regarding the sexual abuse of a child.
According to court documents and information presented at the trial and sentencing hearing, in the fall of 2019, Solis lived with his girlfriend in Eastern Washington. Solis was abusive and manipulative, which included monitoring his girlfriend’s actions through logging on to her social media and various phone applications.
Solis eventually moved to Michigan, where he continued his pattern of manipulation. In attempt to appease Solis, his girlfriend agreed to create sexually explicit videos involving a minor child and send them to Solis.
In February 2020, Solis became angry when he learned that his girlfriend told her mother Solis had access to the family cell phone plan. For the next several hours, Solis threatened to report his girlfriend to police based on the previously created videos, unless she created more explicit videos involving the minor child. Solis gave her specific instructions regarding the content and time length for the videos.
After the creation of the videos, the two continued texting. At some point, Solis again became upset with his girlfriend. This time, instead of demanding another video, Solis logged into his girlfriend’s phone account, using the name and password he used to monitor her activity, and sent the explicit videos to his girlfriend’s co-workers and friends.
“Daniel Solis committed acts of unimaginable cruelty and exploitation,” stated Acting U.S. Attorney Rich Barker. “His manipulation and abuse caused profound harm, and today’s sentence reflects the seriousness of those crimes. The Department of Justice remains steadfast in its commitment to protecting the most vulnerable in our communities—our children—and to holding predators accountable wherever they are found.”
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit Justice.gov/PSC.
This case was investigated by the FBI, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, and the Kalamazoo Township Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Alison L. Gregoire and Rebecca R. Perez with assistance from the Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office.
2:20-cr-00179-TOR