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1 charged in disseminating, 1 in criminal sexual conduct

A pair of men have made initial  appearances Monday in Mower County District Court in two separate  cases of child sex crimes.

Ignacio Santiago Maruri, 19, pleaded not guilty to four felony counts of disseminating and possessing child pornography.

According to the court complaint, the Austin Police Department received two tips from the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which in turn came from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The tips noted that Facebook reported a user had uploaded two files of suspected child sexual abuse on March 3, 2021 and three files on May 3.

Subpoenas were issued for both Facebook and Charter Communications, which yielded an IP address, logins and logouts from Facebook as well as subscriber information for the IP address associated with the uploads.

The upload allegedly showed the subscriber as Ignacio Maruri.

Two of the files were reviewed by a detective, with one of them depicting a video of a female child in a sex act.

Three more files were reviewed that also showed sex acts with a child.

A search warrant was executed at Maruri’s residence after police made contact with him. Police seized a Samsung Note cell phone, A Samsung Galaxy S9+ cell phone and a Samsung Galaxy S5 cell phone.

After being questioned about the material found on the phone, Maruri allegedly stated that he was involved in different groups on Facebook and that someone had sent him a file that contained sexual material involving a child from one of these groups.

He also admitted to sending videos of adult pornography to the group. He went on to say that members of the group began sending him more child pornography and other pornography, which was followed by Facebook shutting down his account.

On March 9, the detective met with Maruri at his residence. Maruri allegedly admitted that the Facebook account associated with the uploads was used by him.

No date has been set for  Maruri’s next appearance.

Alan Tentzohua-Tzompaxtle

Alan Tentzohua-Tzompaxtle, 30, of East Chicago,  has pleaded not guilty to three counts of felony first degree criminal sexual conduct with a child under 13.

He is accused of having sexual conduct with a child that started when the victim was eight years old.

According to the court complaint, the victim met with a detective from the Mower County Sheriff’s office on Feb. 18, when the victim identified the defendant and alleged that he had touched and fondled her inappropriately, including her genital area.

Not long after, the defendant said, Tentzohua-Tzompaxtle assaulted her again with a third time alleged to have taken place when she was 10-years-old.

After the third time, Tentzohua-Tzompaxtle allegedly told the girl not to tell anybody.

The detective made contact with the defendant by phone, who acknowledged that he had lived in the area about three years ago. Tentzohua-Tzompaxtle denied sexually assaulting the girl.

Tentzohua-Tzompaxtle’s next court date is slate for Sept. 23 for a pre-trial hearing.