Onondaga County Man Sentenced to a Total of 57 Months for Failing to Update His Sex Offender Registration and Absconding from Supervision on His Underlying Sex Offense

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Douglas Gustafson, age 36, of Syracuse, was sentenced in federal court today for failing to register and update his registration as a sex offender after absconding from a halfway house where he had been living as a part of his conditions of federal supervision. United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and David L. McNulty, United States Marshal for the Northern District of New York, made the announcement.

Gustafson was required to register as a sex offender because of a federal conviction in 2008 for recruiting and enticing a fourteen-year-old minor to engage in a commercial sex act.  He was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for that offense.  Following his release from prison in 2016 Gustafson was placed on 10 years supervised release. As a convicted sex offender he is required to register with the New York State Sex Offender Registry and to update any changes, including any change in residence. Gustafson’s last registered address was a halfway house where he was living as a part of his court-ordered supervised release.  He admitted in his earlier guilty plea that in May of 2022 he absconded from that facility within weeks of being placed there and did not update his change of residence with the Sex Offender Registry as required by law.  Gustafson was located by the United States Marshal NY/NJ Regional Task Force a month later in Cazenovia, NY, and arrested. 

For the crime of failing to update his sex offender registration, District Judge David N. Hurd sentenced Gustafson to 33 months in prison.  For violating the terms and conditions of his supervised release, he sentenced Gustafson to an additional (consecutive) term of 24 months in prison, for a total of 57 months.  When released, Gustafson will serve another 10 years on supervised release. Under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, Gustafson is obligated to register as a sex offender for 25 years, exclusive of time spent incarcerated.

This case was investigated by the United States Marshals Service and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lisa M. Fletcher as part of Project Safe Childhood. Launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, Project Safe Childhood is led by United States Attorney’s offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (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 https://www.justice.gov/psc.