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Monday, December 23, 2024

Oklahoma man receives lengthy prison term for child exploitation crime

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Merrick B. Garland, Attorney General | https://www.justice.gov/

Merrick B. Garland, Attorney General | https://www.justice.gov/

Jerrod Lee Sharp, a 41-year-old resident of Ponca City, Oklahoma, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for the attempted enticement of a minor. This will be followed by a lifetime of supervised release, and Sharp is required to register as a sex offender.

Court documents reveal that on July 17, 2022, Sharp began messaging a woman in West Virginia who he believed was the mother of two young girls. In these messages, he expressed his intention to engage in sexual activities with both children and discussed traveling to West Virginia for this purpose.

Sharp exchanged more than 1,600 messages with the woman. On July 30, 2023, he traveled from Oklahoma to Charleston, West Virginia with plans to meet the woman and her daughters. Upon his arrival in Charleston, law enforcement officers arrested him.

United States Attorney Will Thompson announced the sentencing and praised the investigative efforts of the FBI's West Virginia Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Task Force along with the West Virginia State Police.

The sentence was handed down by United States District Judge Joseph Robert Goodwin. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jennifer Rada Herrald and Francesca C. Rollo.

This prosecution is part of Project Safe Childhood, an initiative led by the Department of Justice aimed at combating child sexual exploitation and abuse nationwide. The project utilizes federal, state, and local resources to apprehend individuals who exploit children and aims to rescue victims. Further information about Project Safe Childhood can be found at www.justice.gov/psc.

For additional details regarding this case or related court documents, refer to Case No. 5:23-cr-126 on PACER or visit the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia's website.

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