A 37-year-old Jacksonville man has admitted in federal court that he used the internet in an attempt to lure someone he believed was a 13-year-old child into sexual activity, the result of an FBI undercover sting that ended with his arrest last summer.
Tony Leroy Bartley Jr. pleaded guilty on Feb. 3, 2026, to a federal charge of attempting to entice a minor using the internet. The conviction carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a maximum possible sentence of life. His sentencing is set for April 21, 2026, a proceeding that will cap an investigation that began with an online operation and ended with Bartley in handcuffs last August.
According to court documents described in a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Middle District of Florida, an FBI agent working undercover on a social-messaging app posed as a 13-year-old and began private chats with a user who called himself “keven.” Investigators later identified that user as Bartley. The messages, prosecutors say, included explicit sexual requests, graphic descriptions, and an explicit photo. Agents arrested Bartley on Aug. 5, 2025, after he traveled to the agreed meeting spot, where he allegedly expected to encounter the child.
After his arrest, Bartley admitted to agents that he had communicated online with someone he understood to be underage, according to the same federal filing. He reportedly told investigators, “I should have stopped at 13, and that's on me.” Bartley has now formally pleaded guilty to attempting to entice a minor via the internet and faces the full statutory range that comes with that conviction. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney D. Rodney Brown, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Middle District of Florida.
Daycare Ties And Local Reaction
Local coverage has also focused on Bartley’s prior employment at Amazing Explorers Academy in Ponte Vedra. According to reporting from Action News Jax, the childcare center terminated Bartley after his arrest. Some parents told the station they were furious they were never notified that a former employee had been accused in a child sex enticement case and are now calling for stronger transparency from local childcare providers.
The daycare, for its part, told reporters that no enrolled child was connected to the federal investigation and that the center is cooperating with authorities. That assurance has not fully calmed concerns for some parents, who say they want clearer, faster communication if staff members become the subject of serious criminal allegations.
Legal Consequences And Context
Federal law makes it a crime to use the internet to entice or attempt to entice minors into sexual activity. The statute, found at Cornell Law School, authorizes severe penalties, reflecting how seriously federal courts treat online exploitation cases. Depending on the facts and a judge’s discretion, an attempted enticement conviction can yield decades behind bars, up to life in prison.
Bartley’s arrest and the underlying sting first drew wider attention last year when the case was initially reported in coverage of the FBI sting operation.
Sentencing in Bartley’s case is scheduled for April 21, 2026, in federal court. Anyone who wants to report suspected online sexual exploitation of a child can file a confidential tip with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s CyberTipline at report.cybertip.org.
