A Guatemalan national faces life in prison on kidnapping-related charges that he took a Cape May County teenage girl to Georgia in 2023 for sexual activity.
Philip R. Sellinger, U.S. attorney for New Jersey, announced the indictment of Sergio Gomez, 22, one of two men arrested in Georgia in August 2023 for luring a Middle Township girl, 14. The girl, a resident of Court House, was found safe in Acworth, Georgia, on Aug. 3, 2023, after being missing since July 30, 2023.
According to Sellinger, Gomez was indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday, July 17, in the U.S. District Court in Camden on charges of traveling to Cape May County to kidnap a minor.
According to reports published last year in the Herald, Gomez and another man, Yester R. Montecillos-Vazquez, 25, were arrested in Acworth, where the juvenile was found safe by the FBI. Both Gomez and Montecillos-Vazquez were lodged in the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center in Canton, Georgia, on charges of luring a child and conspiracy to lure a child, both second-degree crimes.
Sellinger said Gomez, also known as Abner Abigail Chub-Choc, made his initial court appearance July 17 before U.S. Magistrate Matthew J. Skahill in Camden federal court and was detained. He was indicted on July 17 on one count each of enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity, transportation of a minor to engage in sexual activity and kidnapping.
The indictment says Gomez used the internet and a cellphone to entice the girl. On July 30, 2023, he arrived in Cape May County and took the minor to Georgia with the intent to engage in sexual activity, the indictment says.
Under federal law, the count of enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The count of transportation of a minor to engage in sexual activity carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum sentence of life in prison, and the count of kidnapping carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. All of the charges also carry a maximum fine of $250,000 per count.
Montecillos-Vazquez was not charged under federal statutes, at least not in New Jersey. A spokesperson from Sellinger’s office said he was not charged by that office. The Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office provided the complaints against Gomez and Montecillos-Vasquez on July 22.
Police used phone records to track the victim’s and one of the suspect’s cellphones. According to the affidavit of probable cause provided by the Prosecutor’s Office, police were called to a home on East Shellbay Avenue in Cape May Court House on Sunday, July 30, 2023, at around 11:30 a.m., for the report of a missing juvenile.
Police searched the area and conducted a search of pings on the victim’s phone, which was located in the girl’s home. Police located a contact identified as “Randy” in the victim’s phone and began a ping search on the phone, which was located in Acworth, Georgia. Call detail records showed the phone was in Middle Township near the victim’s house around the time she was reported missing.
Details further showed the suspect’s phone was taken across the Delaware Memorial Bridge into Delaware and stopped in Jessup, Maryland, with pings indicating a stop at a Quality Inn. FBI agents from Baltimore checked cameras at the hotel and found footage showing two Hispanic males with the victim. It was later learned that Montecillos-Vazquez had registered at the hotel under his name.
Cellphone records indicated Montecillos-Vazquez’s cellphone was in constant contact through the course of the day on July 30, 2023. Both phones later pinged in the area of Shadowbrook Drive and Shadow Circle in Acworth.
The FBI located a white Kia Optima, which had been recorded on surveillance footage from Shellby Avenue in Cape May Court House, in the driveway of a home on Shadow Circle in Acworth. The FBI located the victim just after midnight on Aug. 3, 2023.
Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James E. Dennehy in Newark for their work. He also thanked the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office, Middle Township Police Department, FBI Atlanta office and the Cherokee County, Georgia, Sheriff’s Office.
The government is represented in the case by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Katelyn R. Waegener of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Camden.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
