A 34-year-old man was sentenced on Friday to serve 25 years in prison for the aggravated sexual assault and child pornography possession charges stemming from 2017 Long Branch incidents, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced on Friday.

Jaime Mauricio Leon, 34, of Bloomfield, had previously pleaded guilty to the charges on April 17. On Aug. 2, Leon was sentenced to 25 years in a New Jersey state prison. Leon is required to serve the full 25 year term without the possibility of parole pursuant to the Jessica Lunsford Act. As a result, he will be 57 before he satisfies his sentence. Upon release, Leon will be required to register under Megan’s Law and he will be placed on parole supervision for life.

The case background …

The convictions are the result of a joint investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the Long Branch Police Department that began on June 16, 2017 when a private citizen walked into the Long Branch Police Department to report he observed a man and a woman, through a window, committing sexual acts upon a minor. 

The citizen provided evidence of Leon and his female codefendant committing various sexual acts upon the toddler. The child appeared to be asleep, but the resulting investigation revealed the couple provided her with sleeping medication in order to facilitate the sexual assault. The child was known to the female codefendant, whose charges are still pending.  Leon was ultimately arrested at his place of employment in Fort Lee, New Jersey on June 23, 2017.  

During his plea, Leon admitted that he and his codefendant planned the attack on the child via text message. He further confirmed that he possessed sexually explicit images and a video of the child that the woman had sent to him the day before the assault. The text messages, images and video were recovered from the defendants’ phones.