Acting United States Attorney Richard R. Barker announced that Daniel Augustine Solis, 33, has been sentenced to 40 years in federal prison for producing and distributing child sexual abuse material. United States District Judge Thomas O. Rice also imposed a lifetime of supervised release and restitution of $615.
Solis's criminal trial began on November 4, 2024, under Judge Rice's supervision. On the second day of the trial, Solis pleaded guilty after evidence was presented showing a text conversation between him and his co-defendant regarding the sexual abuse of a child.
Court documents revealed that in the fall of 2019, Solis lived with his girlfriend in Eastern Washington, where he was abusive and manipulative. This behavior included monitoring her actions through her social media and phone applications. After moving to Michigan, Solis continued this pattern by coercing his girlfriend into creating sexually explicit videos involving a minor child.
In February 2020, when Solis learned that his girlfriend had informed her mother about his access to their family cell phone plan, he threatened to report her to police unless she created more explicit videos involving the minor child. He provided specific instructions for these videos.
Following the creation of these videos, Solis sent them to his girlfriend’s co-workers and friends after accessing her phone account without permission.
"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."
This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, an initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. The project aims to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals exploiting children via the Internet while identifying and rescuing victims.
The investigation involved the FBI, Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, and Kalamazoo Township Police Department. Assistant United States Attorneys Alison L. Gregoire and Rebecca R. Perez prosecuted the case with assistance from the Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office.
