BOISE, Idaho — A man from Adrian, Oregon, convicted last year on federal child enticement charges will spend 34 years and 4 months in prison for his online communication with an Idaho girl.
Brett Michael Malone, 31, was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Boise. In addition to the prison time, Chief U.S. District Judge David Nye sentenced Malone to a lifetime of supervised release after he completes his prison term. Malone also will be required to register as a sex offender and forfeit the electronic device used to commit his crime, U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit announced in a news release Tuesday.
Malone was convicted of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor on Oct. 24, 2022, after a four-day trial. He also admitted to a sentencing enhancement for committing enticement while being required to register as a sex offender because of a 2013 third-degree rape conviction in Malheur County, Oregon, according to the news release from Hurwit's office.
According to testimony and evidence presented at the trial, Malone used Facebook to send sexually explicit pictures and video to a 15-year-old girl in Idaho, and also enticed her to meet him for sexual contact. The girl's mother found messages between Malone and the victim on the girl's cell phone and reported the messages to Homeland Security Investigations. Agents with HSI began communicating with Malone undercover, assuming the girl's identity, and Malone continued to engage in sexually explicit conversation with an undercover agent. Law enforcement arrested Malone when he traveled for what he believed to be a meeting with the girl.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide project the Department of Justice launched in 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Malone was immediately placed in custody of federal marshals after Monday's sentencing. Judge Nye is recommending that he serve his prison sentence at a federal facility in Englewood, Colorado, or Tucson, Arizona. Online court records indicate attorneys for Malone have filed a notice to appeal Monday's judgment to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
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