- Michelle Nicole Hidalgo pleaded guilty to abusing a girl last year
- The plea deal caused prosecutors to drop the child pornography charge
- She faces a life sentence, but will have a chance for parole after she turns 15
A California nanny who sexually assaulted a girl in her care so she could send photos to a man she met online could be released from prison within 15 years.
Michelle Nicole Hidalgo, 29, was arrested in September in Antioch, California, and charged with seven counts of child pornography and three counts of sexual assault.
On Friday morning, she pleaded guilty to abusing the child, but her plea deal required prosecutors to drop child pornography distribution and additional child abuse charges.
The charge to which she pleaded guilty means Hidalgo faces 15 years and life in prison at her sentencing hearing scheduled for July. But after fifteen years she gets a chance for paroleaccording to court documents obtained The Mercury News.
Michelle Nicole Hidalgo has pleaded guilty to abusing a girl in her care, but her sentence could be shorter than expected
Michelle Nicole Hidalgo was arrested in September in Antioch, California and charged with seven counts of child pornography and three counts of sexual assault
Hidalgo was arrested after police in Contra Costa County received a tip from an unnamed social media platform about child abuse images shared by the babysitter on their platform.
When they investigated her online activities, police reported finding conversations between her and a man asking for “worse and worse” images of the girl.
The nanny was still employed by the victim’s family at the time of her arrest.
In addition to the four child pornography crimes she previously faced, Hidalgo was subsequently charged with three more counts of child abuse of a victim under the age of 10 and using a minor for sexual acts.
When confronted with the images by a senior prosecutor’s officer, Hidalgo reportedly admitted to sharing the images and called them a “stupid” one-time mistake.
But police suspected she had also abused the child at the direction of the man she sent the images to.
After receiving the initial tip, the Contra Costa County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force executed a search warrant at her home, where they seized “equipment used in the production and distribution” of the child abuse images.
Prosecutor Diana Becton previously said authorities had not ruled out the possibility that there were more victims.
Hidalgo initially pleaded not guilty to the charges during her first trial last year.
On Friday morning, the 29-year-old pleaded guilty, but her plea deal meant prosecutors had to drop the distribution of child pornography and additional child abuse charges.
The charge to which Hidalgo (pictured) pleaded guilty means she faces a minimum prison sentence of 15 years
Her bail was originally set at $700,000 before it was increased to $2.7 million.
The district attorney’s office said during her initial hearing that it would argue to keep her behind bars if her defense requests a bail reduction because “she is a danger.”
According to Hidalgo’s Facebook profile, she is originally from Pacifica, California, and graduated from Terra Nova High School.