A Chicopee, Massachusetts man has been sentenced to seven and a half years in federal prison after he spent six weeks messaging someone online he believed was a 13-year-old girl from Vermont, then traveled to meet her for sex. Thomas Ndissi, 39, was arrested at a hotel in Springfield, Vermont, after communicating online with an undercover agent he believed was the girl.
Six Weeks of Messages Led to a Hotel Arrest
According to WPTZ, prosecutors said that in September 2025, Ndissi spent six weeks communicating online with an undercover agent he believed was a 13-year-old girl from Vermont. He eventually made plans to meet the purported minor in Vermont for sex, according to the outlet, and was arrested at a hotel in Springfield, Vermont when he showed up.
The case was built on an investigation by the Hartford Police Department and the Vermont Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, according to the Vermont Attorney General's Office and Western Mass News. Ndissi was initially charged in state court with luring a child before the case moved into the federal system.
Guilty Plea and Sentence
Ndissi pleaded guilty to a charge of traveling interstate to engage in illicit sexual conduct, per the same account. The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont said he pleaded guilty to that charge, and a federal judge sentenced him to 90 months of imprisonment to be followed by five years of supervised release.
Before the federal case took shape, Ndissi faced a separate path through Vermont's court system. The Vermont Attorney General's Office said he pleaded not guilty at a November 2025 arraignment in Vermont Superior Court, Windham Criminal Division, where Judge Michael Kainen ordered him held on $5,000 bond, according to the Office of the Vermont Attorney General. Separately, Ndissi's age was reported differently across outlets at different points in the case: the federal sentencing coverage lists him as 39, while Western Mass News identified him as 38 at the time of his November 2025 arraignment.
The Statute Behind the Charge
The federal charge Ndissi pleaded guilty to falls under 18 U.S.C. § 2423, a statute that, per the U.S. Code, addresses knowingly transporting a person under 18 in interstate or foreign commerce with intent that the person engage in criminal sexual activity. It is the same statute that has been applied in other cases nationally, including a prior prosecution of a Fairfax Station, Virginia man who was sentenced to 50 months in prison for traveling to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor and for possessing child pornography, according to a Washington Field Office release from the FBI.
With Ndissi's sentence now handed down, the case stands as the latest instance of an online sting leading to federal prison time for someone who believed he was arranging to meet a child.
