BILLINGS MAN SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR COERCION AND ENTICEMENT

BILLINGS — Marshall Vincent Lucas, a 42-year-old Billings man, was sentenced on Tuesday for coercing a minor girl to engage in sexual conduct with him and into producing sexually explicit images of herself after providing the girl with a laptop, U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said.

U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen sentenced Lucas to 14 years in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release.  The defendant pleaded guilty in February.

The government alleged in court documents that in September 2021, Lucas provided the victim, Jane Doe 1, who is under the age of 16 years, with a laptop for purposes of communicating with her. Lucas had met Jane Doe 1 through her mother. Lucas began to correspond with Jane Doe 1 using an alias. Through electronic and in-person communications, Lucas asked Jane Doe 1 how she felt about him and requested nude pictures of her and to engage in sexual conduct with him. Lucas persisted, and ultimately engaged in sexual conduct with Jane Doe 1 and she provided him with nude pictures of herself that she produced as his direction. Lucas also sent Jane Doe 1 nude pictures of himself and instructed her to delete electronic communications between them.  

Assistant U.S. Attorney Zeno B. Baucus prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force and the Musselshell County Sheriff’s Office.