Monticello Man Pleads Guilty to Attempted Enticement of a Minor

A man who attempted to entice a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity pled guilty today in federal court in Cedar Rapids.

Colton Rickels, age 19, from Monticello, Iowa, was convicted of one count of attempted enticement of a minor.

At the plea hearing, Rickels admitted that, in October 2014, he used the Internet to attempt to persuade, induce, entice, or coerce a 12-year-old female to engage in sexual activity.

Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade will be set after a presentence report is prepared.  Rickels was taken into custody by the United States Marshal after the guilty plea and will remain in custody pending sentencing.  Rickels faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of life imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, a $100 special assessment, and supervised release for 5 years to life following his imprisonment.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Monticello Police Department, and the Cedar Rapids Police Department.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.  For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.  The case file number is CR 15-20.

Follow us on Twitter @USAO_NDIA.