Man Sentenced to 10 Years for Traveling to Colorado to Engage in Sexual Acts with a Minor

DENVER – A Nevada man was sentenced to 120 months in prison yesterday in U.S. District Court in Denver for traveling across state lines with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor, announced Colorado U.S. Attorney John Walsh and Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

Brian Franklin Howard, 38, of Las Vegas, pleaded guilty on Sept. 11, 2015, to one count of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a 10-year-old minor child.  He has been in custody since his arrest on April 2, 2015.  U.S. District Judge Christine M. Arguello of the District of Colorado, who sentenced Howard, also ordered the defendant to serve 10 years of supervised release.

According to the plea agreement, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) agent, posing undercover as a single mother of two minor children, came into contact with Howard online.  Howard then arranged to meet the mother and her children and flew from Las Vegas to the Denver International Airport, where he met the undercover agent, confirmed his intent to have sex with children and was arrested.

“Defendant’s chilling and detailed effort to come to Colorado to rape children fully deserves the severe sentence imposed by Judge Arguello,” said U.S. Attorney John Walsh.   “Let this case serve as a warning.”

 “Anyone who travels hundreds of miles across state lines to have sex with a 10-year-old is a danger to children everywhere,” said David A. Thompson, special agent in charge of HSI Denver.  “Under our Operation Predator program, HSI identifies and targets these predators to rescue and bring justice to their young victims, and help protect other children by apprehending these predators in our communities.”

ICE-HSI investigated this case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Alecia Riewerts of the District of Colorado and Trial Attorney James E. Burke IV of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) prosecuted the case.

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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and 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.