Alleged Facebook predator has 17-year offer to admit Tri-City child rapes

A 21-year-old Kennewick man is looking at 17 years behind bars if he admits stalking underage girls on Facebook so he could lure them to have sex with him.

That is the current plea offer before Valentin A. Castrejon, “so obviously this is a very serious case,” said attorney Scott Johnson.

The defense recently asked to push the two Franklin County Superior Court cases into 2018 so Johnson has more time to investigate the allegations and work with an expert.

Castrejon also has an active case in Benton County Superior Court with similar circumstances.

Franklin County Deputy Prosecutor Teresa Chen expressed concern with the long delay, saying one girl’s case has been languishing since September 2015, and she receives regular phone calls from another girl’s mother.

“There’s just a lot of children waiting,” she said.

Investigators have identified four victims, all between the ages of 12 and 14.

Judge Cameron Mitchell said he recognizes it is a serious matter that requires substantial preparation.

“While I do appreciate the hardship placed on the alleged victims, the court does believe that postponing the case at this point outweighs the victims,” he said, moving the trial to Jan. 17.

Mitchell granted a prosecution request to try the two Franklin cases together with one jury.

Castrejon’s 2015 case is for second-degree rape of a child.

The 2016 case has seven felony charges: first-degree possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct; second-degree child rape; two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor; and three counts of third-degree child rape.

Prosecutors allege Castrejon befriended thousands of girls on his Facebook account. His page was changed to private after his initial arrest.

In one case, a Pasco woman contacted police in July 2016 after discovering that her teenage daughter had sex with an older man, court documents said.

The girl told detectives that she met Castrejon at a party earlier in the year, and that the two stayed in contact through Facebook and text messages, documents said. She said after they had sex, she had to sneak Castrejon out a back door because her mother came home.

Castrejon is accused of videotaping some of the sex acts during the alleged rapes.

It was while investigating the Franklin County allegations that the name of a girl who lives in Benton County surfaced as a possible victim.

The Benton County case is for second-degree child rape. He has an Oct. 19 hearing to reset dates.

Court documents show that while Castrejon was out of custody on his first Franklin County case, he met another girl on the social media site and she agreed to visit him at a Kennewick apartment.

She said that she told Castrejon her real age before they had sex. Castrejon told her he was 21, and said she could not tell anyone because it was illegal for them to have sex, documents said.

Police drove the girl to the apartment complex where they met. It reportedly is where Castrejon’s sister lives.

Castrejon is in the Franklin County jail on $1 million bail, along with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold.

This story was originally published October 13, 2017 at 6:41 PM with the headline "Alleged Facebook predator has 17-year offer to admit Tri-City child rapes."