FORMER YOUTH MINISTER FROM LAS CRUCES SENTENCED TO 71 MONTHS

ALBUQUERQUE – Stephen Mendoza Arellano, 31, of Las Cruces, N.M., was sentenced today in federal court to a 71 month term of imprisonment followed by 15 years of supervised release based on his previously entered guilty plea to the offense of traveling in interstate commerce for the purpose of engaging in sexual contact with a minor.

           Arellano pled guilty on April 9, 2018, and admitted that in the early summer of 2017, he began to pursue a romantic relationship with the 15-year-old minor victim, whom he knew through the Apostolic Assembly Church and their families’ relationship.  He further admitted that in June 2017, he traveled from Las Cruces to El Paso, Texas, with the intent to engage in illicit sexual contact with the victim. 

           According to court records, at the time he committed the offense, Arellano was an ordained minister of the Apostolic Assembly Church and was serving as the Church’s District of New Mexico Youth President.  He was also a National Ordained Minister for the Apostolic Assembly Church, at the time, held the title of District of New Mexico Youth President, and was a member of the same church as the victim.  The child victim who was 15-years-old when he began contacting her.  HSI initiated the investigation into Arellano after receiving a report from the parents of Arellano’s victim.

           This case was investigated by the Las Cruces office of HSI and the Las Cruces Police Department.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Marisa A. Ong and Aaron O. Jordan as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and DOJ’s Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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 http://www.justice.gov/psc/.