Genaro SantanaAvalos was convicted of multiple child sex crimes on Oct. 14, 2026, after a jury found him guilty of messaging a teenage girl online and going to meet her in a park to have sex.
San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office
A 42-year-old man was convicted of multiple child sex crimes on Wednesday after a jury found him guilty of messaging a teenage girl online and going to meet her in a park to have sex.The “15-year-old girl” he thought he was messaging, however, was actually an adult Sheriff’s Office detective investigating online child predators.Genaro SantanaAvalos was arrested on Dec. 12, 2024, in a San Luis Obispo park for attempting to meet up with the person he thought was a teenage girl for sex, the District Attorney’s Office said in a news release Wednesday.Earlier that night, SantanaAvalos — using the name “Alex” — had unknowingly exchanged electronic communications with a Sheriff’s detective posing as a child decoy on a dating and “hook up” website, the release said.Over text, SantanaAvalos, then 40, asked the Sheriff’s decoy to “hook up,” proposed getting a hotel room and sent two sexually explicit photographs of himself, the release said.When the decoy told SantanaAvalos she was underage, he briefly hesitated, replying, “If ur gonna cost me trouble maybe I shouldn’t go,” but then continued the conversation, the release said.He went on to ask when the decoy’s mother would return home from work, saying the meeting was “only going to be for a little while” and offering to drop her back at home by 5 a.m., the release said.SantanaAvalos then drove from Paso Robles to a park in San Luis Obispo to meet the decoy, texting updates on his arrival time and telling her which car to look out for, the release said.Around 9:47 p.m., SantanaAvalos drove his car into the arranged meeting location’s parking lot, where detectives stopped and arrested him, the release said. Detectives found a condom, methamphetamine and a methamphetamine pipe with him.In an interview with detectives, SantanaAvalos first denied talking with a 15-year-old, then changed his story to claim someone else had used his phone and that he had been dropping off a friend at the park, the release said. Detectives had watched him drive into the lot alone and a forensic examination of his phone confirmed his messages with the decoy, as well as saved directions from Paso Robles to the San Luis Obispo park and the explicit photographs he sent.“Every child deserves to grow up safe from adults who would exploit them, and that includes online predators,” District Attorney Dan Dow said in the release. “This defendant was told he was talking with a 15-year-old girl. He hesitated, and then he drove to meet her anyway.”After a week-long trial considering this evidence, Genaro SantanaAvalos was convicted of two felonies for contacting a minor with intent to commit a sexual offense, arranging a meeting with a minor for lewd purposes and going to the meeting place, the release said. He was also found guilty of two misdemeanor drug possession offenses.“Because Sheriff’s detectives were the ones on the other end of that conversation, no child was harmed this time. But real children in our community are targeted this way every day, and too often the harm is done before anyone knows,” Dow said. “This verdict is about protecting them.”SantanaAvalos faces a maximum sentence of 5 years and 6 months in state prison for his crimes and will be required to register as a sex offender.His sentencing hearing is set for Nov. 19.If you are the victim of a crime, or a family member of a victim of a crime, call the San Luis Obispo County Victim Witness Assistance Center at 805-781-5821 for assistance. To learn more about your rights, visit https://oag.ca.gov/victimservices/content/bill_of_rights
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Chloe Shrager
The Tribune
Chloe Shrager is the courts and crimes reporter for The Tribune. She grew up in Palo Alto, California, and graduated from Stanford with a B.A. in Political Science. When not writing, she enjoys surfing, backpacking, skiing and hanging out with her cat, Billy Goat.
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