Repeat Sex Offender Sentenced to More Than 22 Years in Federal Prison for Attempting to Coerce a Minor to Have Sex

RENO, NV—A man with a prior federal child pornography conviction in California has been sentenced to 22 ½ years in prison and lifetime supervised release for his guilty plea to soliciting children over the Internet for sex, announced Daniel G. Bogden, United States Attorney for the District of Nevada.

Vincent Charles Fasone, 44, of Fernley, Nevada, was sentenced on Wednesday, May 22, 2013, by Senior U.S. District Judge Howard D. McKibben. Fasone pleaded guilty on January 31, 2013, to one count of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor and one count of commission of a felony sex offense by an individual required to register as a sex offender. Under federal law, each count carries a minimum mandatory 10 years in prison, and the repeat sex offender count must be served consecutively.

“From about 2007 through 2012, more than 12,000 persons have been convicted in federal courts nationally of an offense related to the sexual exploitation of a minor,” said U.S. Attorney Bogden. “In the District of Nevada during 2012, 60 persons were charged federally with such crimes and 74 new investigations were opened. Almost all of the persons charged were convicted and sentenced to more than five years in prison. We will continue to aggressively pursue these defendants who attempt to exploit our children.”

On September 11, 2012, a detective with the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office who was working on the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force began an undercover investigation on an Internet chat site looking for targets who were seeking to solicit or entice minor children for sex. Fasone, often using the screen name “Guysmiley,” was observed in various chat rooms. Over the next couple days, the undercover detective, posing as an interested father of a young girl, had multiple online conversations with Fasone, who expressed his desire to have sex with young girls. Arrangements were made to meet Fasone at an apartment complex in Sparks, Nevada, on September 20, 2012. Fasone thought he was meeting the father and the father’s 7-year-old daughter and 12-year-old female babysitter for sex. Fasone was arrested as he went to the apartment.

Fasone was convicted in 1998 in the Southern District of California of receipt of child pornography and sentenced to four years in prison.

The case was investigated by the Northern Nevada Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which includes the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-HSI, the Nevada Attorney General’s Office, and the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Carla B. Higginbotham.

The 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.”