Belgrade man sentenced to five years in prison for attempted transfer of obscene material to minor

MISSOULA  — A Belgrade man who admitted to attempting to send obscene images to a minor during an undercover investigation was sentenced today to five years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said.

Aric Collin Normile, 42, pleaded guilty in September 2022 to attempted transfer of obscene material to a minor.

U.S. District Judge Dana L. Christensen presided.

The government alleged that during an undercover investigation in January 2022, law enforcement posed on social media as an uncle offering for others to have sex with his 12-year-old niece. Normile responded, agreeing to meet for the purpose of having sex with the minor girl and sending the undercover officer an explicit image of himself. After the undercover officer and Normile agreed to a meeting location, law enforcement arrested Normile when he arrived. Normile attempted to flee, but law enforcement deployed a flash bang grenade and blocked the exit of the meeting location.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Wendy A. Johnson, Cyndee L. Peterson and Ryan G. Weldon prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the FBI, Montana Division of Criminal Investigation, Montana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the FBI Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office and Bozeman Police Department.

This case was initiated under the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative, which was launched in 2006 to combat the proliferation of technology-facilitated crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children. Through a network of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and advocacy organizations, Project Safe Childhood attempts to protect children by investigating and prosecuting offenders involved in child sexual exploitation. It is implemented through partnerships including the Montana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The ICAC Task Force Program was created to assist state and local law enforcement agencies by enhancing their investigative response to technology facilitated crimes against children.

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