‘I was trying to do a good deed’: California man arrested for trying to buy minors for sex
By Ricardo Tovar
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SALINAS, California (KSBW) — A Monterey County respiratory therapist is out of federal custody after being arrested and accused of trying to meet minors for sex.
Edy Antonio Jr., 30, of Salinas, was arrested on April 21, 2025, in the parking lot of a Starbucks with $500 in cash. According to the criminal complaint, he worked in Salinas and Monterey.
Antonio is accused of using a platform promoting illegal services to plan a meeting with an undercover officer posing as a sex trafficker selling two minors aged 12 and 14.
The online ad read “two pretty lil flowers that are ready to bloom,” along with photos that listed their ages as 99, per the criminal complaint.
Communication details revealed that Antonio arranged to pay $500 for sex with the minors.
“I’d just like to say I’m sorry. Um, I can’t take back what I did, but I can learn from it. Um, I’m happy it’s not, it’s not real, that these girls aren’t being sold real, but I know it’s happening out there, especially in the third-world countries,” said Antonio in an interview with law officials, per court documents.
He later placed a call while in jail on a recorded line to his longtime partner.
“I was trying to do a good deed, and I got f******g arrested,” he explained to his partner. “I got a phone number. Somebody messaged me, like, [inaudible], like, trying to sell me, like, like adolescents, kids, right? So I was like, ‘What the hell?’ So I messaged them back in hoping to like, you know, see if I can get their address and I can call 911, but then when they gave me the address, I went there, and next thing you know, I got f******g arrested.”
The charges under Title 18, Section 2422(b) carry penalties, including a mandatory 10-year minimum prison sentence.
Antonio is scheduled to be in court on June 3. He was released on a $50,000 bail.
According to the criminal complaint, Homeland Security Investigations and the Salinas Police Department investigated this case.
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