Concho County Resident Sentenced To 37 Months In Federal Prison For Failing To Register As A Sex Offender

LUBBOCK, Texas — Gary Edward Larock, Jr., 35, most recently a resident of Eden, Texas, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings, to 37 months in federal prison for failing to register as a sex offender, announced U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.

Larock has been in custody since his arrest in June 2013 on a related criminal complaint.  He pleaded guilty in August 2013 to an indictment charging one count of failure to register as a sex offender.

In August 2005, Larock was convicted in New York of third-degree rape, a felony.  He was notified that based on that conviction, he was required to register as a sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.  Larock left New York and traveled to California, where, in December 2012, he was arrested by the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office on an outstanding warrant from New York for failing to comply with sex offender registration requirements in that state.  He was released from jail in California in early February 2013 and traveled to Eden, Texas, where he gained employment.  Larock failed to register as a sex offender while living and working in Eden, Texas.

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

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Marshals Service, the Concho County Sheriff’s Office and the Texas Department of Public Safety.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Sucsy prosecuted.