Man previously convicted on child porn charges facing up to life in prison for coercion and enticement of Massachusetts minor

BOSTON – A man pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Boston in connection with coercion and enticement of a Massachusetts minor.

Domenique Dequon Hines, 25, of Crystal Lake, Ill., pleaded guilty to one count of coercion and enticement of a minor before U.S. Senior District Court Judge William G. Young who scheduled sentencing for Jan. 11, 2023. Hines was initially charged by criminal complaint and arrested in Illinois in December 2020 and subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury in January 2021. Hines was later charged in a superseding Information on Sept. 9, 2022, with coercion and enticement of a minor.

Hines and a 14-year-old Massachusetts victim initially met on Instagram in October 2020 and exchanged phone numbers and profile pictures and began communicating online via iMessage and other forms of internet communication for a period of approximately 10 days. On the first day of communications, Hines confirmed with the victim that she was 14 years old, and he informed the victim that he is 23 years old. After confirming her age, Hines knowingly persuaded, induced, enticed and coerced the victim to take and send him, sexually explicit images and videos of herself. Hines requested that the victim call him “daddy,” and explained that if her parents ever try to take her phone, she should delete all of their text messages.

Hines was previously convicted of a child pornography offense in the state of Illinois.

The charging statute provides for a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and up to life in prison, a mandatory minimum of five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Boston Division; and Norfolk County District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Suzanne Sullivan Jacobus and Christopher R. Looney of Rollins’ Criminal Division are prosecuting the case.

This 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. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.