A 27-year-old Jacksonville man will spend the next decade in federal prison after he was caught trying to meet up with someone he believed was a 13-year-old girl, but who was actually an undercover FBI agent. Orlin Eli Gonzalez was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in federal prison.
The Department of Justice announced Gonzalez's 10-year federal prison sentence.
News4JAX reported that Gonzalez was indicted on a charge of attempting to entice a 13-year-old child to engage in sexual activity. He was arrested on September 4 and remained in custody, the station reports.
An FBI Decoy Posing as a Teen Girl
An FBI agent posed as a 13-year-old girl on a social media app. A user contacted the decoy account, asking about the purported teen's sexual experience, requesting nude photos and saying he wanted to have sex, according to the station's report.
Investigators later identified Orlean as Gonzalez. The messages included requests for nude photos.
Confirming a Meeting, Then Biking Toward It
On the day of his arrest, Gonzalez asked the purported child for her address and planned to meet her, according to the station's account. FBI agents then watched him ride a bicycle toward the agreed-upon location before arresting him at the scene, the Department of Justice says.
Assistant U.S. Attorney D. Rodney Brown prosecuted a separate case involving Tony Leroy Bartley Jr., who admitted to trying to lure a minor over a messaging app after his own arrest in an FBI sting.
A Mandatory Minimum Sentence
Gonzalez's 10-year sentence reflects the statutory mandatory minimum under Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 2422(b), which targets adults who use cellphones, messaging apps or the internet to entice minors into illegal sexual activity, per the Department of Justice. The law carries a penalty range running from that 10-year floor up to life imprisonment.
Because parole was eliminated in the federal prison system under the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, federal inmates must serve at least 85% of their imposed sentence before release, according to LV Criminal Defense. That means Gonzalez is expected to serve more than eight years in federal prison before beginning his 10-year term of supervised release, even accounting for any good-behavior credit inmates can earn.
Part of a Broader Federal Crackdown
Gonzalez's prosecution falls under Project Safe Childhood, the nationwide Department of Justice initiative launched in May 2006 that marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute people who sexually exploit children while working to identify and support victims. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida has prosecuted more than 1,500 individuals under the initiative since it began, the Department of Justice says.
Similar undercover enticement cases have surfaced repeatedly in the region in recent months, including an August operation that led to a dozen arrests in a Clay County predator sting.
