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Press Release

Man Sentenced for Coercion and Enticement of Minor

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Virginia

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A Florida man was sentenced today to 10 years in prison for using Kik, an instant messaging mobile application, to coerce and entice a minor.

According to court documents, in late 2016, Anthony C.A. Martin, 27, of Pensacola, began communicating via Kik with a 15 year-old female living in Alexandria. In March 2017, over Kik, they discussed Martin traveling from Ohio, where he was living at the time, to Virginia to have sexual intercourse with the minor victim and then transport her back to Ohio. Days later, Martin met the minor victim in a room at a hotel in Alexandria, where the two had sex before driving to Ohio.  There, Martin used Kik to ask the minor victim to send him explicit photographs and videos. Later in June 2017, after the minor victim had returned to Virginia, Martin again traveled to Alexandria, where he met the minor victim at a different hotel and recorded their sexual encounter with his cell phone and without the minor victim’s consent.

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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the 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.justice.gov/psc.

G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Matthew J. DeSarno, Special Agent in Charge, Criminal Division, FBI Washington Field Office, and Michael L. Brown, Alexandria Chief of Police, made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alexander E. Blanchard and Kellen S. Dwyer prosecuted the case.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:18-cr-238.

Contact

Joshua Stueve
Director of Communications
joshua.stueve@usdoj.gov

Updated October 2, 2018

Topic
Project Safe Childhood