FREEHOLD – A Monmouth County jury has returned a guilty verdict against a Keansburg man for being in possession of large caches of child sexual abuse materials in his home, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago announced Thursday.
Jose Gabe Veras, 34, was convicted of second-degree Endangering the Welfare of a Child for the Possession of More than 1,000 Items of Child Sexual Abuse Material, for crimes that took place on diverse dates between July 2019 and February 2020.
An investigation by the Monmouth County Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, initiated by a tip received through the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, revealed that Veras had utilized a cloud storage application to store child sexual abuse material on various electronic devices in his home.
The New Jersey Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory assisted the ICAC Task Force in the investigation. Veras was arrested without incident at his home on Manning Place in Keansburg in February 2020 and was indicted in October 2021, then stood trial before Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Jill G. O’Malley, starting earlier this month.
Prosecutor Santiago thanked the jury for their service and credited Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutors Joseph Competello and Joshua Carmel with handling the prosecution and securing the conviction. Veras was represented by George J. Mardinly, Esq., with an office in Red Bank.
The Monmouth County ICAC Task Force includes members of the following police departments: Bradley Beach, Eatontown, Howell, Long Branch, Manalapan, Marlboro, Middletown, Neptune Township, Spring Lake, Spring Lake Heights, Tinton Falls, Keyport, Keansburg, Belmar, Holmdel, and Red Bank; the Task Force also receives investigative support from the New Jersey State Police.
Following his conviction, Veras was remanded to the custody of the Monmouth County Correctional Institution (MCCI), pending his sentencing, which is scheduled for Friday, May 19. At that time Veras will face a term of up to 10 years in state prison.
