Crystal Lake man sentenced to 19 years in federal prison for soliciting child to send sexually explicit photos

A 25-year-old Crystal Lake man was sentenced Wednesday to 19 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to coercing a child to produce sexually explicit images and videos.

Domenique Dequon Hines was released from an Illinois prison less than two months before he began communicating with a 14-year-old in Massachusetts via Instagram and then iMessage, according to a complaint filed in the Massachusetts federal district court.

The messages obtained by an FBI special agent after the teenager’s parents brought them to police show that Hines knew the child’s age before asking for the images, according to the complaint.

Hines communicated with the teen for about 10 days in October and November 2020 before the parents retrieved the messages via the family’s iCloud account, according to the complaint. Hines had told the teenager to delete their messages if the parents ever tried to take their phone.

“Domenique Dequon Hines is a calculating and manipulative predator who targeted, exploited, and harmed a vulnerable child for life. No sentence for this man will wipe away the scars he left on his 14-year-old victim,” Joseph R. Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston division, said in statement.

A search of a cell phone and SIM cards seized from Hines found additional child pornographic images, including some depicting toddler-aged children, and evidence that he was engaged in sexualized communications with other children 13 to 16 years old, according to prosecutors’ sentencing memorandum.

The federal case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.

As part of Hines’ plea deal, he knew his sentence would fall between 15 and 20 years, according to the plea agreement. The offense carried a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.

A charge requiring a mandatory sentence of 15 years to 30 years was dismissed as part of the deal, according to a sentencing memorandum submitted by the defense.

Hines previously was convicted of soliciting child pornography in McHenry County and sentenced to four years in state prison following a plea deal, court records show.

In that case, he was accused in August 2017 of soliciting a child he knew or should have known was under 18 to appear in a sexualized video and photography, according to the McHenry County indictment. He also was accused of possession of child pornography, indecent solicitation of a child and grooming.

If convicted of the most serious offense, a class X felony, he faced up to 30 years in prison, but instead he pleaded guilty to a class 1 felony and was sentenced to four years in prison, sentencing documents show. He also was required to register as a sex offender for life.