St. Cloud sex offender sentenced to 25 years in federal prison
Submitted by Department of Justice
A U.S. District Judge has sentenced a St. Cloud man for production and possession of child sex abuse materials.
Michael Belmares, 63, will serve 25 years in federal prison, and was also ordered to serve a 10-year term of supervised release and register as a sex offender following his release from prison.
Belmares had pleaded guilty on March 15.
According to evidence presented in his court case, Belmares took naked photos of a six-year-old child focused on the child’s genitalia. A subsequent search also revealed Belmares had other photos that he had taken of various children in shopping center parking lots in Osceola County. These children were fully clothed and could not be identified. Authorities also discovered Belmares’ collection of thousands of images depicting children being sexually abused. Among these were binders of photos that Belmares had saved, with date stamps, from as early as 1996, and hundreds of images of child sex abuse saved on various electronic devices. The court also found that Belmares had a 1996 sex offense conviction in North Carolina that enhanced his sentence.
This case brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
Murder arrest from June case
With assistance from police in the Florida Panhandle, the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office has made an arrest in a June homicide.
Safari Rodriguez, 19, has been arrested and charged with felony murder, aggravated assault and battery with a deadly weapon.
On June 3, the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office responded to Saint Tropez Court in the Poinciana area regarding a shooting. When deputies arrived on the scene they discovered a deceased victim, Alejandro Armando Guzman. Other victims were injured during the shooting but survived. Violent Crimes Unit detectives identified Rodriguez as a person of interest in connection to the incident.
On June 29, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office and the United States Marshal’s Service arrested Rodriguez for an active warrant on Attempted Murder. On July 8, Osceola detectives obtained a warrant for premeditated murder and aggravated assault with a firearm for Rodriguez.
Rodriguez has been returned to Osceola County, where he’s held at the Osceola Jail without bond. Through an attorney, he has already pleaded not guilty and has asked for a jury trial.
Rodriguez has no prior criminal record in Osceola County, per Clerk of Court records.
