Man Sentenced to Prison for Failing to Register as a Sex Offender

A man who failed to register as a sex offender was sentenced on February 26, 2020, to more than four years in federal prison.

Marquette Lamont Lawson, age 48, from Chicago, Illinois, received the prison term after a September 26, 2019 guilty plea to failure to register as a sex offender.

At the guilty plea, Lawson admitted that from May 2017 to February 12, 2018, he knowingly failed to register or update his registration as required by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act while he was residing and working in Iowa.  Lawson is required to register as a sex offender due to his prior conviction for aggravated criminal sexual abuse, on January 11, 1989, in Cook County, Illinois. 

Lawson was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams.  Lawson was sentenced to 51 months’ imprisonment.  He must also serve a 5-year term of supervised release after the prison term.  There is no parole in the federal system.

Lawson is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kyndra Lundquist and investigated by the United States Marshals Service. 

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. 

The case file number is 19-CR-0071.

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