A convicted child rapist from Queens will spend 45 years behind bars for luring several young children into sending him explicit pics and video, a federal judge in Brooklyn ruled.
David Burgos-Collazo, 45, got the mandatory minimum sentence Thursday, after a jury convicted him in 2022 of what a federal prosecutor referred to as a “truly horrific” child exploitation spree.
Burgos-Collazo used dozens of Instagram accounts in early 2020 to convince several young girls between the age of 7 and 11 that he was a modeling scout, then coaxed them into sending explicit images.
And he resorted to blackmail to force at least one of his victims to keep talking to him and performing on weekly video calls.
About a month into their correspondence, he told her her, “U better text me before I start posting ur pics.”
When she responded, “I’m tired of doing this I just want to be my age 9 years old and live my life so please leave me alone,” he threatened, “Next post is u naked.”
Federal prosecutors requested a life sentence for Burgos-Collazo. “He didn’t just target minors. He targeted very young, prepubescent children,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel Shanies. “He threatened to shame them. He blackmailed them … We believe that a life sentence is absolutely necessary to protect society and protect children.”
Burgos-Collazo was already a registered sex-offender at the time of the crimes — in 2006 he was convicted of raping a 7-year-old girl and attempting to sexually assault two girls, ages 9 and 11.
Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Pamela Chen opted for the mandatory minimum instead of life, saying that while the crimes were “horrific and repugnant,” she felt that even the 45-year term is too excessive and essentially amounts to a life sentence.
“I still do not believe that the defendant should die in prison,” she said.
Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News)
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace referred to Burgos-Collazo as a “master manipulator and sextortionist.”
“It has been proven that the defendant is an extremely dangerous predator, who, while being a registered sex offender, coerced a 10-year-old child to perform sex acts for him on Instagram and threatened the child when she pleaded that he leave her alone,” Peace said. “And sadly, she was not the only vulnerable victim.”