Richland teen’s fascination with pornography led police to discover he was a rapist
A Richland teen says he was just 9 or 10 when he started viewing any kind of pornography he could get his hands on.
Seven years later, it was Nicholas J. Reyes’ continued infatuation with porn that led police to discover he had been sexually abusing young boys.
Reyes, now 17, willingly shared multiple online downloads with an undercover detective, including a series of pictures of a naked young girl.
When confronted two months later about the child pornography, the teen admitted raping at least two boys over a few years, according to a presentencing report.
“Nicholas reported that he replaced watching child pornography to sexually abusing (boys),” a counselor noted in a sexual deviancy evaluation.
The teen this week was ordered to serve five years in prison for his guilty pleas to three sex crimes.
Sex offender treatment ordered
He was granted a sentencing alternative for sex offenders, which reduces his time behind bars but requires five years of treatment with a certified provider.
It also includes a 10-year suspended term, which can be ordered at a later date if Reyes violates the terms of his sentence.
Reyes turns 18 in June. He will serve the start of his sentence in a juvenile rehabilitation facility but likely will be transferred to a state prison once he’s an adult.
One of Reyes’ cases was transferred to adult court because of the seriousness of the allegation and his age at the time.
He pleaded guilty in Benton County Superior Court in early February to first-degree child rape with the aggravating circumstance that he abused a position of trust to commit the crime.
At the same time, he pleaded guilty in his Benton County Juvenile Court case to first-degree child rape and second-degree possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
That case carries a 15- to 36-week sentence, which will be served at the same time as the other case.
Reyes has been in the Juvenile Detention Center since last summer.
Admitted raping 2 boys
As detectives with the Southeast Regional Internet Crimes Against Children task force were searching his Richland home last June, Reyes said his parents had access to his computer but did not know how to get into specific files, court documents show.
He talked about raping a grade-school boy two or three years prior, when he was 14, documents said.
Reyes also admitted sexually assaulting a young boy several times between October 2017 and June 2018.
The victim told his parents about one interaction, but Reyes denied it when confronted, so the boy’s parents did not report it to law enforcement, documents show.
Reyes told a community corrections officer for his presentencing report that he has extreme remorse.
“He stated to me that he feels disgusted when he thinks about what he did and is very ashamed of it,” the report says. “He says he feels like he has changed in the time that he has been at the Juvenile Justice Center, and hopes that everyone involved can heal.”
This story was originally published March 27, 2019 at 6:02 PM.