Child Sex Trafficker Sentenced
| U.S. Attorney’s Office October 13, 2010 |
TAMPA, FL—U.S. Attorney Robert E. O'Neill announces today that U.S. District Judge Richard A. Lazzara sentenced Manuel A. Walcott (age 31, of Largo) to 20 years in federal prison for conspiring to commit sex trafficking of a minor for commercial gain, sex trafficking of a minor for commercial gain, and producing child pornography. The court also ordered Walcott to register as a sex offender upon his release and sentenced him to a lifetime of supervised release. A jury found Walcott guilty on July 28, 2010.
According to evidence presented at trial, Walcott and co-defendant, Pasquale O. Holt, recruited a 14-year-old to have sex for money. Both defendants took pornographic pictures of the minor and uploaded one of the photographs onto the Craigslist "erotic services" website. The Craigslist ad featured the pornographic image of the child and solicited men to show her a "good time." Undercover law enforcement officers responded to the ad and agreed to pay $300 to have sex with the minor child and with a prostitute, also listed in a Craigslist "erotic services" ad.
Holt is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Lazzara on November 11, 2010.
This case was investigated by the FBI's Tampa Area Crimes Against Children Task Force. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Shauna S. Hale and Stacie B. Harris.