Friday, Feb. 18, 2011 | 2:59 p.m.
A federal jury Thursday convicted a Las Vegas man of two federal child sex crimes committed when he solicited sex over the Internet from a person he thought was a 14-year-old girl and then went to McCarran International Airport to meet her arriving plane, Nevada's U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden said.
Darryl Owen Walizer, 43, a previously convicted sex offender, was convicted of coercion and enticement of a minor and commission of a felony sex offense by an individual required to register as a sex offender. He was indicted by a federal grand jury last March.
He is scheduled to be sentenced May 31 by U.S. District Judge Philip Pro, and faces 20 years to life in prison.
“As this case demonstrates, convicted sex offenders and others who use the Internet to prey on children will be located, apprehended and prosecuted,” Bogden said. “This type of repeat offender faces a very lengthy term of imprisonment, and in the federal system, there is no parole.”
Claude Arnold, the special agent in charge who oversees U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations in Las Vegas, said: “This verdict should serve as a stern warning about the consequences facing sexual predators who use the Internet to stalk young victims.”
Last March federal authorities in Las Vegas received information from the Garland (Texas) Police Department that one of their detectives who was acting in an undercover capacity as a 14-year-old female had been contacted online by Walizer in February 2010 and solicited for sex. Walizer had asked the undercover agent about her level of sexual experience, and if she was looking for an older guy to teach her about sex.
In continued online conversations, Walizer’s statements became more sexually graphic, he told the agent he loved her and that she was his girlfriend, and he began speaking about engaging in sexual acts with her.
The agent told Walizer she was going to Las Vegas to see an uncle. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Walizer at McCarran on March 12, 2010, where the girl’s plane was supposed to arrive. Walizer has prior convictions for solicitation of a juvenile in Virginia and for importuning in Ohio, and is required to register as a sex offender.
The case was is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nancy Koppe and Christina Silva.
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