Abel Trujillo, who spent five years fighting for the UFC, was sentenced to two years of probation Monday in a child exploitation case against him, according to 9News in Colorado.
This past March, Trujillo, 36, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of promoting obscenity. Three other felony charges, however, were dropped against him. Trujillo had faced up to 18 months in jail.
Trujillo was arrested in July 2019 when a 16-year-old girl alleged that he sent pictures of his genitalia and videos of him masturbating after friending her on Instagram and Snapchat in March 2018, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by MMA Junkie.
The victim told police that she asked Trujillo to stop multiple times and blocked him. But seven months later, after she refreshed her social media accounts, he started sending more nude photos. That’s when she went to the police, telling them that she believed Trujillo knew she was in high school at the time of their exchanges.
When the victim began cooperating with police, they obtained login information on Trujillo’s Snapchat and Instagram accounts and traced it back to his residence in Thornton, Colo.
After obtaining a search warrant, police entered Trujillo’s apartment. The affidavit states Trujillo admitted to “multiple conversations with females under the age of 18” and admitted he knew the alleged victim was under 18. Trujillo admitted requesting nudes from the alleged victim, as well as sending her explicit photos.
Police seized Trujillo’s phone during the search. Dozens of photographs of “nude young women” were discovered in Trujillo’s iPhone gallery, according to the affidavit. The ages of the women could not be verified, but several photos also appeared to match the nudes Trujillo allegedly sent to the victim.
Trujillo last fought for the UFC in December 2017. Among his record he has losses to Tony Ferguson and current lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. Trullio closed out his UFC tenure with back-to-back losses to James Vick and John Makdessi.