BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A Venezuelan woman who was accused of conspiring with a Vermont man to kidnap and kill a man in South America has agreed to plead guilty to a charge related to a child sex abuse video.
Moraima Escarlet Vasquez Flores, also known as Johana Martinez, 40, pleaded guilty on Thursday to aiding and abetting the receipt of child pornography.
Last year, Sean Fiore, 39, of Burlington, was sentenced to 27 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to federal charges that he commissioned Vasquez Flores to make videos of a boy being tortured as well as the torture and killing of a man, records show.
Vasquez Flores was arrested in Colombia and extradited to Vermont last year. She originally pleaded not guilty to four federal charges in April 2022 and has been detained ever since. A federal judge on Thursday ordered her held pending sentencing in September.
Court records say Vasquez Flores sent Fiore a hyperlink in 2018 to a video file depicting what prosecutors describe as her “inflicting sadistic abuse on a prepubescent boy.” He ultimately paid her $600 in Amazon gift cards.
Prosecutors said Fiore later agreed to pay $4,000 for a second video that showed the torture and killing of a man in Venezuela. In 2019, Vasquez Flores was alleged to have sent Fiore a hyperlink to a 58-minute video file depicting the abuse and possible death of an adult male, the U.S. attorney’s office for Vermont said.
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