A sadistic transgender pedophile serving his sentence in a women’s prison has entered into settlement negotiations with the New Jersey Department of Corrections after suing officials for denying him access to “Wiccan religious items.” Marina Volz is currently serving a 25-year sentence for horrific sexual crimes he committed against his own 7-year-old daughter.
As previously reported by Reduxx, Volz, born Matthew, was first sentenced on charges of human trafficking, aggravated sexual assault, conspiracy and endangering the welfare of a child on May 2, 2022. The conviction stemmed from a lengthy investigation into Volz and three of his associates.
A search warrant was executed at his home in 2019 after the New Jersey Department of Child Protection received a tip indicating that a child was present in a premises where sexually explicit material was being filmed. Volz, along with another trans-identified male named Ashley Romero, had been operating a “transgender fetish porn” business from the home, and concerns had been raised that Volz’s 7-year-old daughter had been exposed to indecent material.
But after his electronic devices were seized, the investigation took a decidedly darker turn. Several sexually-explicit photos and videos of the child were found after forensic examination. As the investigation continued, it became clear that the child had been repeatedly sexually abused to create sadistic bondage pornography that Volz distributed through his network.
Investigators learned that Volz had taken the child from her mother in 2018, traveling cross-country with Romero to transport her from Oregon to New Jersey for the explicit purposes of using her in child sexual abuse material. It is believed the girl’s mother, an ex-partner of Volz’s, struggled with addiction issues, making it easy for the two men to take the child without her full knowledge of what was happening.
Some of the media found by police featured Romero sexually abusing the girl with another man. Romero lived in the residence with Volz and with two other individuals; Sean Allen, who had also sexually abused the child on film, and Dulcinea Gnecco, who acted as a domestic assistant.
During the trial, prosecutors told the Judge the little girl had been subjected to “a vortex of darkness” after being removed from her mother’s care.
Judge Peter Tober declined to delve into the full details of the case due to their highly graphic nature, but noted to the court that she had been subjected to torture-like conditions, mentioning neck collars, a cage in the basement, and sex toys.
“If this was not heinous, cruel and depraved, I don’t know what is,” Judge Tober said, stating that the girl had been taken from her mother “solely for the sexual gratification” of others.
In media coverage of the horrific case, Volz and Romero were referred to as “women” and were addressed using “she/her” pronouns. Volz was even identified as the girl’s “mother” in the Daily Mail and My Central Jersey. It was later uncovered that Volz had previously served as the Clark College Queer Association president prior to his transition, just one year before the sexual abuse of the child began.
Volz was ultimately sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted of human trafficking, aggravated sexual assault, conspiracy and endangering the welfare of a child. Ashley Romero was also sentenced to 25 years after admitting to assisting Volz in transporting the child from her mother for the purposes of sexually abusing her.
The two other men in the home were also convicted for their roles in the sexual abuse of the child. Sean Allen, 54, was handed a 12-year sentence for his role in the crimes, and Dulcinea Gnecco, was also charged on four counts of child endangerment and received a 5-year sentence.
After their sentencing in May of 2022, Reduxx learned that Romero had immediately been housed in the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women, but that Volz had initially been placed in the South Woods State Prison for men. Just two months later, Volz was quietly transferred to Edna Mahan but was still recorded as a “male” inmate until 2023, when the state of New Jersey updated his inmate profile to classify him as a “female” inmate.
That same year, Volz launched a discrimination lawsuit against the New Jersey Department of Corrections, alleging human rights violations on the basis of his “religious freedoms.”
In the suit, Volz claimed he was being denied religious accommodations in accordance with his Wiccan beliefs. Wicca is a modern Pagan spiritual practice that centers on nature, rituals, and reverence for divine forces often represented as a Goddess and a horned God.
Volz alleged that Joy Lynch, the head of religious services at Edna Mahan, had denied him a number of Wiccan religious accommodations, including the ability to maintain a “Witch’s Garden” for growing “sacred herbs” and the ability to perform night-time rituals either nude (“sky-clad”) or in a cloak.
The NJDOC permits the practice of Wicca in the state’s prisons, and practitioners are reportedly allowed to access at least some of the items Volz claimed he had been denied, such as the Book of Shadows, which contains instructions for magical rituals, a pentacle, incense, three electric or battery-operated candles, and a cup of grape juice as a substitute for wine.
The case has been slow-moving, but a new update shows that Volz has now entered into settlement negotiations with the Department, and had requested a number of measures to settle the case that Department lawyers are now considering.
Volz has presented the Department with 12 settlement demands, including the right to perform outdoor Wiccan religious ceremonies in the nude during certain observations, and the ability to be designated a Wiccan religious leader within the prison.
But another striking point from the latest joint update includes a request from Volz to marry his sex offender accomplice, Ashley Romero, while the two are incarcerated.
If the request is approved, Volz and Romero would not be the first trans-identified male inmates at the women’s prison to be permitted to marry while incarcerated.
Another Edna Mahan inmate, Perry “Michelle Hel-loki Angelina” Cerf, was permitted to marry another inmate at the facility while serving a 50-year-sentence for the brutal slaying of 47-year-old Ecuadorian immigrant Flor Andrade in 2002.
Cerf had been stopped for speeding while driving her car in Demearst, New Jersey, and further investigation by police led them to the corpse of Andrade, whose naked and bound body had been dumped in a nearby ravine. He was charged with murder, felony murder, robbery, aggravated sexual assault, possessing a knife, providing false information to police, and various motor vehicle offenses.
Speaking to media in 2005, Cerf said he had no regrets about murdering Andrade. “Personally, I don’t like to say I regret things that I’ve done,” he said, concluding: “I feel bad because I got caught.”
During his trial, prosecutors initially offered Cerf a 40-year sentence if he pleaded guilty to rape and murder. However, Cerf told authorities he didn’t want to enter prison on a sex-related charge and accepted a 50-year sentence to avoid a rape conviction, expressing concerns that being a sex offender would make him a target for other inmates.
Cerf was quietly transferred to the women’s facility at an unknown date after beginning to identify as transgender.
In 2022, a female inmate at Edna Mahan spoke to Reduxx and revealed that Cerf had been permitted to marry another inmate at the facility, and that the two had even been housed together for a period of time before being separated due to repeat complaints from other inmates.
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