BANNING, CA — A 21-year-old Banning man who sexually assaulted two young boys and made videos of the acts was sentenced Friday to 50 years to life in state prison.
John Edward Lario pleaded guilty in July to two counts of lewd acts on a child under 14 years old and sentence-enhancing allegations of targeting more than one minor in a sex crime under a pretrial agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney's Office. In exchange for his admissions, prosecutors dismissed eight related charges against Lario.
During a hearing at the Banning Justice Center Friday, Superior Court Judge Jonathan Mendoza imposed the sentence stipulated under the plea deal.
Lario was arrested following an investigation by the multi-agency Riverside County Child Exploitation Team, or RCCET.
According to prosecutors, the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs contacted U.S. Homeland Security Investigations in early September 2024 after overseas law enforcement personnel discovered internet-based child pornography traceable to a local resident.
RCCET and HSI coordinated efforts to identify the party responsible for circulating the obscene matter and ultimately connected it to Lario, compiling sufficient evidence to procure a search warrant, which was served at his Charles Street home on Sept. 3, 2024, when he was taken into custody without incident.
"That led to the identity of the (first) victim, an 8-year-old boy," according to the D.A.'s office.
Additional investigative work turned up a second boy who had been similarly abused, according to the criminal complaint. The document identified the youths only by their initials — "N.B." and "N.L."
Court papers indicated the latter child was repeatedly assaulted, beginning in the fall of 2022 and continuing until September 2024.
It was unclear how the victims originally came into contact with Lario, or how many of the encounters were videotaped and disseminated.
The defendant had no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.
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