The Armed Robber Predator Got Deported

     Norberto Avalos was born on February 28, 1965, in Mexico. In 1979, at the age of 14, he was brought to California by an uncle. He was granted temporary lawful resident status in 1986; in 1990, he became a permanent United States citizen. He married the following year, had two sons, and began attending college. In 1997, Avalos and his brother committed armed robbery at a gas station in Stockton, tying and gagging two employees and assaulting a witness. He was arrested, and in 1998, sentenced to five years in prison after taking a plea agreement to avoid a longer sentence. He served his sentence before being deported to Mexico on December 26th, 2001. After his deportation, he worked in sugarcane fields owned by his mother's family for just under three years before illegally returning to the United States in 2004.

     On August 23rd, 2006, Avalos, using the screen name "sebastian_for_u," began chatting with a girl he believed to be a 13-year-old named Willow. He immediately said that she was a kid to him, that he was too old for her, but that it would be okay if she liked older guys, that he would "love to have a Filipina for a friend," (the decoy's screen name being willowfilipino), and that she looked like she was in her twenties, calling her "princess." It pretty much went downhill from there. He lied about his age, saying he was 28 when he was actually 41. After asking if she was a virgin, he said that he would never leave a "princess" like her and that he would do whateverthe decoy wanted to do, including "fishing" and "going to the ocean." Oh boy, what a romantic! His most famous line was, undoubtedly, "I can make a girl walk on clouds." He asked if Willow had ever orgasmed, asked her to be his girlfriend, and, unsurprisingly, said she was a "princess" and that he would treat her like, you guessed it, a "princess." He asked if he needed to bring condoms before explaining he could "pull out on time" and that he would bring "adult movies." He had a webcam conversation with the decoy while he was driving, and on the 24th and 25th, confirmed her address, showing up on the latter date, which also happened to be the first day of the sting in Petaluma, California.

     Avalos walked into the backyard with the decoy carrying a plastic bag in his hand; this bag contained a webcam he had promised to bring the decoy. Avalos tried to shake Chris Hansen's hand when he walked out, but Chris opted not to shake hands with a hardened felon who came to molest a child. When Hansen asked why he brought a webcam, Norberto replied, "for your daughter," thinking Chris was the decoy's father. He admitted he had condoms in his car, claiming he always carried them and that he would not have sex with Willow unless she were 18. He then tried claiming he had had a couple of beers and was tired during the several days of his chat. After exiting the house, he was arrested by the Petaluma Police Department, brought to a temporary booking station, photographed, and questioned. He continued to deny he was doing anything wrong and said he "probably... well no" would have had sex with her. 

     He was released on bail, but his troubles were just beginning. On September 6th, he had a brief chat with another decoy from Perverted Justice, landing him in jail for bond jumping alongside the fact that he was in the United States illegally. He was held indefinitely as his case progressed, pleading guilty in May 2007 and receiving a sentence of three years in state prison (with credit for the eight months he had already served) and lifetime registration as a sex offender. In 2008, he was convicted of entering the United States illegally and sentenced to 46 months in federal prison with three years of parole, to be served concurrently with his sentence from the Petaluma case. He was deported back to Mexico on February 9th, 2012, having spent nearly 66 months behind bars.

     He will remain on the sex offender registry for life, but it hardly matters, as he has been in Mexico for nearly a decade. He helps his family run an auto shop in Michoacán, Mexico. We can only hope that Avalos, who is now 56, does not return to the United States and that he is staying on the straight and narrow and not causing the Mexican authorities any trouble.

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