SORNA Offender Sentenced To 48 Months In Federal Prison

ABILENE, Texas — Troy E. Powell, 46, most recently of Tuscola, Texas, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis to 48 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.

Following a bench trial before Judge Solis in April 2014, Powell was convicted on an indictment charging one count of failure to register as a sex offender.

The government presented evidence that law enforcement learned in late 2013 that Powell, a sex offender from Illinois, had moved to the Abilene, Texas area, and that he may be in violation of his obligation under federal law to register as a sex offender. The investigation validated that fact and revealed that Powell had located and purchased a piece of property with a home on it in Tuscola, Texas, where he had been living since December 26, 2013.

The government presented further evidence that Powell left his residence in Illinois in November 2013 and travelled in interstate commerce to the Abilene, Texas, area. Powell never registered in Texas as a sex offender, as required by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), as he had been convicted of a sex offense in Fremont County, Colorado, and sentenced in September 1992.

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 case was investigated by the U.S. Marshals Service, the Abilene Police Department, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Sterling, Illinois, Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Sucsy of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Lubbock, Texas, prosecuted.