Scott resident pleads guilty to failing to update his sex offender registration

LAFAYETTE, La. – United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced today that a Scott resident pleaded guilty to failing to register his correct address for his sex offender identification.

Charles Edward Shinn, 44, of Scott, La., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Richard T. Haik to one count of failure to update his sex offender registration.  According to evidence presented at the guilty plea, U.S. Marshals learned in January of 2015 that Shinn was living in Louisiana even though he was registered as a sex offender in Mississippi. Upon further investigation, Shinn was found to be living in Scott and working in Lake Charles, La. Shinn was arrested on February 6, 2015. Law enforcement found multiple receipts from local stores in Louisiana dating back to September of 2014, and the owner of the home in Mississippi where Shinn said he lived reported that Shinn had never lived there.

Shinn was convicted in March of 1996 of felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile in St. Tammany Parish in the 22^nd Judicial District of Louisiana. The offense occurred in December of 1993 and involved a 13-year-old. Shinn received four years of probation and was required to register as a sex offender. He never complied with sex offender registration requirements, removed himself from Louisiana Probation and Parole supervision in 1999, and remained a fugitive for the next 10 years. Shinn was arrested in August of 2010 and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama for failure to register as a sex offender. In August of 2011, he received a 10-month federal prison sentence, revocation for the State of Louisiana probation violation, and five years of federal supervised release. After completing his revocation prison term in June of 2014, Shinn was released from the Louisiana Department of Corrections, but never reported to U.S. Probation concerning his federal supervised release. He registered as a sex offender in St. Martin Parish on June 9, 2014, and reported on July 1, 2014, that he had moved to a Mississippi address.

Shinn faces up to 10 years in prison, five years to life supervised release and a $250,000 fine.  A sentencing date was not set.

The U.S. Marshals Service conducted the investigation.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert F. Moore is prosecuting the case.