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Press Release

Marysville Man Receives 25-year Sentence For Coercing A Minor To Engage In Unlawful Sexual Activity

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Ohio
CONTACT: Fred Alverson
Public Affairs Officer

COLUMBUS – Justin Stewart Mote, 33, of Marysville was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 300 months in prison for coercing or enticing a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity. Mote will also be under court supervision for the rest of his life.

Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Franklin County Sheriff Zach Scott and members of the Franklin County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) and William Hayes, acting special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Ohio and Michigan, announced the sentence imposed today by U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus, Jr.  

Mote pleaded guilty on February 21, 2013 to one count of using the internet to coerce or entice a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity. According to testimony presented during the plea hearing, Mote met a 12-year old online and went to Connecticut and Pennsylvania to visit the minor in 2012. Franklin County ICAC investigators received information from a Newtown, Connecticut police officer on October 16, 2012 after the child’s father found letters, text messages and gifts from Mote. Investigators executed a search warrant at Mote’s residence on October 19 and found fully nude photographs of the victim on various media devices including a tablet computer belonging to Mote. 

“Sexual predators present a grave danger to the community,” U.S. Attorney Stewart said. “Few crimes damage our society more than crimes of child exploitation.”

Mote, who was under indictment on state charges of attempted unlawful sexual contact with a minor and importuning in connection with a separate incident, that occurred in August 2011, was arrested. He has been in custody since his arrest.

“A substantial prison sentence like the one handed down today should serve as a stark reminder of what awaits those who sexually exploit children,” said William Hayes, acting special agent in charge of HSI Detroit, which covers Michigan and Ohio. HSI will continue to aggressively target those who prey upon and sexually exploit our children.”

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.  Led by the U.S. Attorneys Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.

Judge Sargus also ordered Mote to undergo a sexual offender treatment program offered by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Mote will also be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life anywhere that he lives, works or goes to school.

U.S. Attorney Stewart commended the investigation by HSI agents and ICAC task force officers, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Hill, who is prosecuting the case.

Updated July 23, 2015