Cabool Man Pleads Guilty to Enticing a Minor for Illicit Sex
| U.S. Attorney’s Office July 01, 2013 |
SPRINGFIELD, MO—Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Cabool, Missouri man pleaded guilty in federal court today to enticing a 14-year-old girl to engage in illicit sex.
Scott Dwayne Baker, 45, of Cabool, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge David P. Rush to the charge contained in a February 28, 2013 federal indictment.
By pleading guilty today, Baker admitted that he sent a series of sexually suggestive texts, including a sexually graphic photo, to the cell phone of a 14-year-old victim. The victim had received numerous text messages of a sexual nature from Baker. On February 2, 2013, a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper assumed the victim’s identity and began communicating with Baker via cell phone text messages.
On February 3, 2013, the undercover officer continued a lengthy text message conversation with Baker during the Super Bowl. After sending sexually explicit messages and a pornographic image of himself to the victim’s cell phone, Baker began making arrangements to meet with the victim. Baker believed the victim would skip school and be at home alone on the following day, February 4, 2013. Baker was asked to bring a Dr. Pepper and a candy bar for the child victim.
When he arrived at the victim’s home at about noon, bringing the Dr. Pepper and candy bar, he was arrested by officers of the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Under federal statutes, Baker is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of life in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $250,000. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.
This case is being prosecuted by Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael S. Oliver. It was investigated by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force and the FBI.
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 the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “Resources.”