Homeless Man Sentenced For Failure To Register As A Sex Offender

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Mark R. Kelley, a 51-year old, homeless man was sentenced on May 2, 2014, in federal district court in East St. Louis, Illinois, on one count of failure to register as a sex offender, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, announced today. Kelley was sentenced to 18 months’ in prison, five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment.

Kelley moved from Illinois to Missouri, without updating his registration in either state. Kelley was aware that he was required to either update his sex offender registration in Illinois to reflect this change of address, or register as a sex offender in Missouri. Kelley was convicted on August 15, 2011, in the Twentieth Judicial Circuit Court in St. Clair County, Illinois, of Indecent Solicitation of a Child.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ 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 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.”

The case was investigated by the United States Marshals Service and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Daniel T. Kapsak.