A Fort Bliss, Texas, noncommissioned officer will spend 60 years in federal prison following a conviction for aggravated sexual abuse of a child and receiving child pornography, according to a Wednesday release from the Justice Department.
Sgt. Ron Mitchell Dunbar, 34, pleaded guilty back in April to one count of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, one count of sexual abuse of a child, one count of aiding and abetting sexual abuse of a child and one count of receipt and possession of child pornography, the release said.
“By pleading guilty, Dunbar admitted that between 2007 and 2009, he sexually assaulted two minor females while on Fort Bliss,” the release said. “Furthermore, Dunbar admitted that on September 15, 2017, he obtained from 29-year-old Fort Bliss resident Faith Mitchell-Chavez multiple photos he requested of her two minor daughters engaged in sexually explicit conduct.”
Though Dunbar’s crimes dated back a decade, the FBI first opened their case in September 2017, when the El Paso, Texas, office got a call from Army Criminal Investigation Command at Fort Bliss, according to a criminal complaint filed in West Texas federal district court.
One of Mitchell-Chavez’s daughters had told her teacher that her mother had taken photos of hers and her sister’s genitalia. An FBI search of the home computer found five deleted images.
A month later, agents tracked down Dunbar, who said he’d contacted Mitchell-Chavez a year earlier when she responded to an ad of his on Craigslist. The two initiated a sexual relationship.
“Dunbar admitted to agents he had brought up the idea of and agreed to buy photographs of Mitchell-Chavez’s daughters' genitalia for what he ‘believed’ was $300 to $500,” according to court documents. “Dunbar stated he was just throwing numbers out because he did not think she would actually take the photographs, and he had no way of paying her the the money.”
Dunbar told investigators that he was sickened by the photos, but added that “the general idea of things that are wrong excites him.”
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Mitchell-Chavez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to produce child pornography, according to the Justice Department release. She is scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 1 and faces between 15 and 30 years in prison.
In the course of their investigation, the FBI found much more than the initial photos. According to court documents, Dunbar had also raped two teenage girls a decade earlier at Fort Bliss.
One incident occurred in 2009, after he had given the girl alcohol and painkillers. Another victim was assaulted multiple times between 2007 to 2009.
Court documents do not make clear how the FBI found out about the other two victims.
Meghann Myers is the Pentagon bureau chief at Military Times. She covers operations, policy, personnel, leadership and other issues affecting service members.
