45-Year Prison Sentence For IE Man Who Catfished Teen Girl For Sexual Gratification

VICTORVILLE, CA — A 42-year-old Inland Empire man was sentenced last week to 45 years in federal prison for catfishing teenage girls.

Daniel Navarro of Victorville received the sentence on May 13 from U.S. District Judge André Birotte, Jr., who also ordered the defendant to pay $15,000 in restitution.

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From at least August 2021 until July 2022, Navarro used Instagram to lead two 14-year-old girls into believing he was “Danny,” a 15-year-old football player from California, according to federal prosecutors.

Using the handles "dn.2021.01" and "dn84831," Navarro "groomed and enticed" the victims into producing sexually explicit images of themselves, prosecutors alleged.

Then, from June 30, 2022, to July 1, 2022, Navarro met up with one of the victims, an Arizona girl who was spending the summer in Nipomo in San Luis Obispo County. He convinced the girl to travel with him to Tijuana, Mexico, with the purpose of having sex with her, according to prosecutors.

Navarro had had an online relationship with the girl for approximately five months. Instagram conversations undercovered during the investigation showed Navarro professed his love for the victim and discussed getting her pregnant, according to prosecutors.

Mexican law enforcement rescued the girl at a Tijuana residence in mid-July 2022. Navarro was arrested around the same time and has been in federal custody since.

"[Navarro] was a nearly-40-year-old man making empty promises to dozens of girls in pursuit of his own sexual gratification," prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. "[Navarro] lied to, groomed, and manipulated children to get what he wanted most from them: sexually explicit images and sex acts with these children."

During a four-day trial in July 2025, a jury found Navarro guilty of six felonies: two counts of sexual exploitation of a child to produce a sexually explicit visual depiction, one count of attempted enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity, one count of transporting a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, one count of distribution of child pornography, and one count of transportation of child pornography.