Jacksonville Man Found Guilty of Attempted Online Enticement of a Minor to Engage in Illegal Sexual Activity and Attempted Production of Child Pornography

JACKSONVILLE, FL—U.S. Attorney A. Brian Albritton announced today that a federal jury has found David Marshall Deal (age 24, of Jacksonville) guilty of using the Internet to attempt to entice a minor child to engage in illegal sexual activity and of attempting to produce images of child pornography. Deal faces up to life in federal prison for the attempted enticement charge and up to 30 years in prison for the attempted production charge. His sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled. Deal has been in custody since his arrest in September 2008.

According to court testimony and evidence introduced during trial, from August 28, 2008 through September 11, 2008, Deal engaged in several online conversations over the Internet with a person whom he believed to be a 13-year-old child. Unbeknownst to Deal, this “child” was actually a detective with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. During the course of the online conversations, Deal attempted to entice and persuade the “child” to engage in sex with him, and he also stated that he wished to take pornographic pictures of the “child.” On September 11, 2008, Deal arranged to meet the “child” at a restaurant near J. Turner Butler Boulevard in Jacksonville for the purpose of engaging in sex. As Deal approached the meeting place in his vehicle, he was arrested by investigators with the Child Predator CyberCrime Unit of the State of Florida Attorney General’s Office and Jacksonville Sheriff’s Officers. A search of Deal’s vehicle revealed that he had brought five condoms, two pairs of thong underwear, and a digital camera in a backpack for use during the planned meeting with the “child.”

This case was investigated by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Child Predator CyberCrime Unit of the State of Florida Attorney General’s Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006, by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum’s Child Predator CyberCrime Unit is a member of the FBI Cyber Taskforce in Jacksonville and the North Florida Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, a federally funded program working nationwide to educate and support law enforcement to stop these crimes. More information on the Florida Attorney General’s CyberCrime initiative is available at http://www.myfloridalegal.com.

The investigation that led to this case was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to identify, investigate, and arrest those who prey on children, including human traffickers, international sex tourists, Internet pornographers, and foreign-national predators whose crimes make them deportable. Launched in July 2003, ICE agents have arrested more than12,800 individuals through Operation Predator. ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-347-2423. This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators. Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.