Alabama man sentenced for trying to have sex with a minor
United States Attorney Thomas F. Kirwin, Northern District of Florida, announced today that David Allen Girard, 53, of Robertsdale, Alabama, was sentenced for using a computer facility to entice or induce a minor to engage in sexual activity and traveling to engage in illicit sexual activity.
The charges stem from the defendant chatting on the website “gay.com.” While on the website, the defendant began to correspond with what appeared to be a 14-year-old boy. During the correspondence, the defendant discussed engaging in sexual relations with the 14 year old.
The defendant then arranged to meet the boy in Pensacola, Florida. The defendant drove his vehicle from Alabama to Florida in order to meet the boy. When the defendant arrived, however, the “14-year-old-boy” turned out to be law enforcement officers who had been working in an undercover capacity on the Internet. The defendant was taken into custody and, found on his person, law enforcement seized condoms and personal lubrication. Girard has a previous conviction in Alabama for the possession of child pornography and is a registered sex offender.
United States District Judge M. Casey Rodgers sentenced Girard to 195 months in federal prison to be followed by a life time term of supervised release. Judge Rodgers admonished the defendant for preying on vulnerable children and noted “that this conduct in our society is not tolerated.”
This investigation was spearheaded by the North Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. This includes members of the Pensacola Police Department, the Milton Police Department, the Pensacola Junior College Police Department, the Fort Walton Police Department, the Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton County Sheriff’s Offices, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the State Office of the Attorney General, the State Division of Probation and Parole, the State Division of Children and Family Services and Child Protection Team, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Naval Criminal Investigative Services.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David L. Goldberg.
