A 38-year-old Grand Blanc man was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison this week for attempting to coerce and entice a minor into illegal sexual activity, capping a case that began when he believed he was arranging to meet an 8-year-old girl at a hotel. The girl never existed, and the man he had been messaging for days was an undercover federal agent.
A Hotel Meetup That Was Never Real
Daniel Joseph Martina was sentenced by United States District Judge Shalina D. Kumar, according to Fox 2 Detroit. As reported by WHMI, Martina admitted that in November 2025 he believed he was communicating online with the father of an 8-year-old girl who would allow him to sexually assault the child in a hotel room. In reality, the “father” was an undercover Homeland Security Investigations agent, and the child did not exist, mlive.com reported.
Court records cited by the same report show Martina messaged the undercover agent for several days on the Kik app before the arrangement was finalized. Per WHMI's account, Martina described the young age of the purported child as what he looked forward to most about the planned encounter, which he called a long-time sexual fantasy, and he promised to give the agent child pornography in exchange for access to the child.
What He Brought to the Hotel
Martina booked a hotel room to carry out the plan and offered to bring a six-pack of beer to split with the supposed father, the WHMI report states. When he actually arrived, he had with him a six-pack of beer, condoms, and devices containing more than 4,000 files of child pornography, according to Mid Michigan NOW.
Homeland Security Investigations agents were waiting for him at the hotel and arrested him on the spot, the outlet reported. After his arrest, Martina told agents, “I just want to thank you guys for catching me before I hurt someone,” according to Fox 2 Detroit.
Federal Officials Respond
Jeremy Pierczynski, acting special agent in charge with Homeland Security Investigations Detroit, said per WHMI that HSI will pursue people who seek to exploit and harm children online or in person. The agency has said it will continue working with law enforcement partners to stop child predators before they can harm a child, WHMI reported.
The case was brought under federal law covering coercion and enticement of a minor. Per 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b), using interstate commerce to persuade, induce, entice or coerce a person into criminal sexual activity — including attempting to do so — carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years and can bring a life sentence.
A Growing Caseload for Investigators
Martina's case lands amid what federal investigators describe as a surging volume of child-exploitation reports. The National Center for Missing Children sent about 1 million child sexual abuse leads in 2014; by 2023, that figure had jumped to roughly 35.9 million, according to a Homeland Security Investigations agent who spoke with WXYZ. HSI investigated nearly 7,000 child exploitation cases nationally last year, leading to roughly 5,000 arrests, with 121 of those cases coming from Michigan and 64 from the metro Detroit area, the station reported.
Other recent federal cases underscore the range of sentences handed down in similar prosecutions elsewhere. In Jacksonville, Florida, Orlin Eli Gonzalez, 27, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for attempting to entice a 13-year-old child, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida. In Ohio, a Dublin man was sentenced to 151 months in prison for arranging online to meet someone he believed was a minor for sexual conduct, per the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Ohio.
