Bastrop resident sentenced to 27 months in prison for sex offender registration violation

MONROE, La. – United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced today that a Bastrop resident was sentenced to 27 months in prison for not updating his sex offender registration.

Solomon Lewis Devoil, 50, of Bastrop, La., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert G. James on one count of failure to register as a sex offender.  He was also sentenced to five years of supervised release. According to evidence presented at the August 10, 2015, guilty plea, Devoil knowingly failed to register as a sex offender in Louisiana and traveled in and out of the Western District of Louisiana without registering as a sex offender in the State of Louisiana.

In December 1997, Devoil pleaded guilty in San Bernadino Superior Court in California to lewd act upon a child. The victim was 14, and Devoil was 32. He is required to register as a sex offender for life in the State of California as well as Louisiana. Bastrop Police arrested him for failure to appear in court in January 2014 and in February of 2014 for simple burglary. On May 12 and 14, 2015, Devoil failed to appear in court for hearings related to the simple burglary charge, and a warrant for his arrest was issued. Devoil was arrested on June 15, 2015 on a federal arrest warrant at an elementary school in Oklahoma where he was working and transported back to Louisiana to face charges.

The U.S. Marshals Service conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael O’Mara prosecuted the case.