SAN ANTONIO – A federal jury last week convicted 41-year-old U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Raymond Valas of sex trafficking of a minor, U.S. law enforcement officials announced.
The jury found that Valas, a U.S. Army War College fellow at Syracuse University and a member of the New Hampshire National Guard, solicited a minor using the Internet for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex. Further, jurors found that Valas knowingly had sex with that minor female in a San Antonio hotel on two occasions in August 2013 while on temporary duty.
Valas faces between ten years and life in federal prison when he is sentenced on February 27, 2015. Following the reading of the verdict, on the motion of the Government, Chief U.S. District Judge Fred Biery remanded Valas into federal custody.
All three of Valas’ co-defendants have been convicted of sex trafficking of minors as a result of this investigation. San Antonio residents Marcus Deshawn Wright, age 38, Malcolm Deandre Copeland, age 22, and Amber Doak, age 20, await sentencing on February 27, 2015.