[CW: The following article describes reports of child sexual exploitation]
Former UFC fighter Abel Trujillo, 36, has accepted a plea agreement in Douglas County, CO over a child exploitation case. Trujillo was arrested last summer under suspicion of sending inappropriate messages to a minor via social media.
Initially Trujillo was charged with promoting obscenity, a misdemeanor, and three felony charges of attempted sexual exploitation of a child, promotion of obscenity to a minor, sexual exploitation of a child – self/publish.
Trujillo’s agreement with the court resulted in him pleading guilty to the misdemeanor and the felony charges being dropped. Trujillo is scheduled to be sentenced on April 6th.
The charges stemmed from communication Trujillo had with a minor beginning in March 2018. The minor had accepted a friend request from Trujillo on Instagram. In an affidavit the minor said that after connecting on social media she received direct messages which made her “uncomfortable.” The affidavit said that Trujillo sent the minor nude photographs and asked her to send pictures of herself. The minor said that Trujillo did not specifically ask for the pictures to be nude, but she felt this was implied.
A search warrant was granted to search Trujillo’s phone in February 2019. An affidavit said that police located “dozens of photos of nude young women” on that device. The affidavit also stated that, “the ages of those females cannot be determined.”
The affidavit stated that Trujillo acknowledged that, “he has had multiple conversations with females under the age of 18.” That document stated that Trujillo also admitted to sending nude photos.
Trujillo made 11 appearances for UFC. His first bout with the promotion was at UFC on Fox: Henderson vs. Diaz in December 2012. His last bout was against John Makdessi at UFC on Fox: Lawler vs. dos Anjos in December 2017.
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