Columbia Man Sentenced For Failure To Register As A Sex Offender

Devereaux L. Davis, a 36-year old Columbia, Illinois, man was sentenced on January 22, 2014, in federal district court, in East St. Louis, Illinois, on one count of to failure to register as a sex offender, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, announced today. Davis was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment.

The violation occurred in 2009, when Davis moved from Illinois to Missouri. He signed an Illinois Sex Offender Registration Act Notification Form on August 14, 2008, acknowledging his requirement to either update his sex offender registration in Illinois to reflect his change of address, or register as a sex offender in Missouri. Davis had been previously convicted of Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse on September 15, 2005, in Monroe County, Illinois. Because of his failure to register in Missouri and his failure to update his registration in Illinois, Davis was charged in federal court with Failure to Register as a Sex Offender pursuant to the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better 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.”

The case was investigated by the United States Marshals Service and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Daniel T. Kapsak.