Man who posed as teen and climbed through girl’s window sentenced to 30 years
FORT WORTH, Texas - A 34-year-old man who posed as a teenage boy and tried to get into a 14-year-old girl’s bedroom will spend the next 30 years in a federal prison.
Matthew Flores was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty in February to the sexual exploitation of a child and possession of child pornography, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad Meacham.
Court documents state Flores posed as a 15-year-old boy on various social media platforms to connect with teenage girls.
In November of 2019, he contacted a 14-year-old girl and arranged to meet her at her home. Her family was home at the time, so he climbed through her bedroom window. But when the girl realized Flores was not a 15-year-old boy, she asked him to leave.
But in the days that followed, the court documents state Flores was able to convince the girl to send him nude photos. He then used those photos to threaten her, saying he’d send the photos to her friends and neighbors unless she allowed him back into her bedroom.
Federal prosecutors said Flores eventually showed up at the girl’s house again with a condom in hand. She told him, "We aren’t having sex," and pushed him back out her window, the news release states.
"I went through something no little girl my age should have gone through. I was vulnerable and lonely, which made me an easy target," the victim testified at Thursday’s sentencing hearing. "I’ll never be the same as I was before. I hated myself for so long, feeling so confused and alone because of him… I can finally say this with the strength I have now: He has no power over me. I will not allow him to hold me back anymore."
Prosecutors accused Flores of targeting at least seven other victims between 2019 and 2022.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Conner sentenced him to 360 months in federal prison.