Level 3 Sex Offender Pleads Guilty To New Charges

BOSTON – A former Barnstable man who was residing in Missouri pleaded guilty today to failing to register as a sex offender.

David W. Lacouture, 52, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to a one-count Indictment charging him with failing to register as a sex offender. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 11, 2015.

In September 2010, Lacouture pleaded guilty in Barnstable County to indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 years of age. As a result of that conviction, Lacouture was required to register as a Level 3 sex offender. At some point, Lacouture relocated without permission or notification to Missouri where he failed to register as a sex offender. In April 2013, he was arrested under an alias on unrelated state charges and returned to Massachusetts.

The maximum sentence under the statute is 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based on the United States Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and John Gibbons, U.S. Marshal for the District of Massachusetts, made the announcement. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Suzanne Sullivan Jacobus of Ortiz's Major Crimes Unit.