Police looking for child sex abuse suspect

A Santa Fe man is facing multiple felony charges over accusations he molested a preteen girl multiple times over several years.

Nelson E. Carmona-Sandoval,

46, faces seven felony counts of criminal sexual contact with a child under 13 years old — two of which are second-degree felony counts for alleged unclothed contact — and two misdemeanor counts of distribution of sexually explicit material to a minor, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court.

A warrant for Carmona-Sandoval’s arrest was filed Friday, but Santa Fe police confirmed Tuesday he had not been taken into custody.

The girl told police Carmona-Sandoval had touched her clothed and unclothed and photographed her inappropriately over the last two years when she was 11 to 12 years old, according to an affidavit for the arrest warrant. Police wrote two witnesses said Carmona-Sandoval had also carried on sexual discussions with multiple underage teenage girls and solicited nude photos of them via text messages they had seen.

A witness told police they were “scared” to go to police with the abuse allegations since the witness is an undocumented immigrant, the affidavit says, and Carmona-Sandoval had threatened the witness with “comments about deportation.”

The witness also said they had hesitated to report it to police because they “did not have funds for a lawyer and Nelson does,” police wrote.