Who is Thomas Zayas? Florida man who intimidated 12-year-old for nudes arrested
ORANGE COUNTY, FLORIDA: A 45-year-old father and Department of Veterans Affairs employee has been arrested for intimidating a 12-year-old into sending him nudes. Court documents uploaded on February 18, 2022, note that Thomas Zayas was responsible for the nudes of a 12-year-old student at an Orange County middle school circulating online. He has since been arrested and slapped with several charges and is now in custody.
Sadly, Zayas joins a long list of adults who have been charged for similar crimes. In September 2020, 'Cheer' star Jerry Harris was accused of enticing a 13-year-old to send nudes. The same month, William Wellington Hoope was convicted for taking nudes of a teen and having sex with her. The next month, teacher Emily L. Edson was jailed for sending nudes to a 13-year-old and begging him for sex.
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The arrest of Zayas comes after a months-long investigation that involved the FBI, VA investigators, and Orlando’s local sheriff’s office. Initially, he denied the accusations but later reportedly broke down and conceded after investigators stopped taping.
Who is Thomas Zayas?
The 45-year-old Orlando resident is an employee of the Department of Veteran Affairs. It's unclear how long he has been employed there, as we could not find any social media profiles in his name. He is reportedly a father of two children. Zayas' estranged wife, Glamarys Beltran told The Daily Beast that "He was very manipulative, and he was mentally and emotionally abusive." She claimed has her own relationship with him began under suspicious circumstances after he contacted online her when she was 18.
Reportedly, Zayas claimed at the time he was 23, but Beltran later found out he was actually 31 years old. However, by the time she made that discovery, she was already pregnant. "I never said anything because I was young. When women are young they’re afraid," she recounted. Eventually, she separated from Zayas and won a custody battle for their two children, despite never having been married.
Zayas' activities came to light after he circulated the nudes of the victim to other students, and claimed she had a sexually transmitted disease. Eventually, those photos made their way to the principal, who called the police. He is accused of grooming the girl between July and August 2021, using the persona "Romeo". When the victim stopped responding to his advances, he created a second account named "Millie" and claimed to be Romeo's sister.
After threats from Millie, the victim continued to talk to Romeo, who requested nude images and videos from the victim. Zayas also sent flowers to the victim at school. Police zeroed in on Zayas using the number he registered on WhatsApp, and the IP address he used to order the flowers for the victim. That led to a search warrant being executed at Zayas' house on January 18, 2022.
Along with the warrant, authorities also interviewed Zayas, who initially denied the claims. "After the recorded interview ended, ZAYAS admitted to using "Romeo" and "Millie" to entice and solicit images and videos from CV. ZAYAS stated "I'm a pathetic loser," and stated that he had not had a date in six years since his wife left him," the court document said. He added that the whole thing started off as a joke, but after he was cut off the first time, he got enraged and decided to "teach the victim a lesson".