Former New Mexico Marine sentenced for raping a minor

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A former New Mexico Marine learned his fate in court on Tuesday after he pled guilty to grooming and raping a minor. In 2022, Derek Stanley was in a relationship with an eighth-grade girl. He was 20 years old at the time.

Stanley was in the Marines and stationed in North Carolina when the victim’s parents discovered the relationship. A detective spoke about the messages they found on his devices that showed he was engaging in sexually explicit conversations with multiple underage girls.

“He went to school with them. he knew they were underage. He knew how old they were. He had a great deal of the command of grooming. By just how many times she said in the chats which we have, we read about, ‘I’m too young for this’, ‘You’re not.’ ‘I’m too physically and mentally too young.’ ‘Well you’re certainly not physically too young,” said Albuquerque Police Department Detective Don Roberts.

Stanley pled guilty to two counts of sexual penetration of a child, two counts of child solicitation, and one count of possession of a visual medium of sexual exploitation. Judge Britt Baca Miller sentenced Stanley to 14 years in prison.

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