Crime & Safety
Alabama Man Sentenced for Traveling to Have Sex with Boys
Joseph Franklin Ellis began communicating with an undercover officer and believed that the officer had a 12-year-old boy and a 5-year-old boy that he would make available for sex.
An Alabama man has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for traveling from Alabama to Georgia to meet an undercover agent who said that he had 12-year-old and 5-year-old boys available for sex.
According to United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates, the charges and other information presented in court: In February 2011, an undercover FBI task force officer placed a notice on a website designed for people to meet others for sexual purposes, saying that he had access to two minor boys. Joseph Franklin Ellis began communicating with the undercover officer and believed that the officer had a 12-year-old boy and a 5-year-old boy that he would make available for sex.
Ellis wrote that he wanted to meet the undercover officer for the express purpose of having sex with the boys. The two eventually made arrangements to meet on May 30, 2011, at a Hampton Inn in Ringgold, Ga., where Ellis would have sex with the two children. When Ellis showed up at the arranged location, FBI agents attempted to arrest him. Ellis fled and led the police on a high-speed chase that only ended when he crashed his car.
Ellis, 33, of Attalla, Ala., has been sentenced to 14 years in federal prison to be followed by 20 years of supervised release. Ellis was convicted of these charges on February 25, 2014, after he pleaded guilty to attempting to have sex with minors.
“Ellis made a decision to prey on innocent and vulnerable children when he traveled to have sex with them,” said Yates in a news release. “Because he was making the arrangements through an undercover officer, Ellis was stopped and his quest to molest children was ended. These types of crimes are unimaginable and those who believe they can evade the law while carrying on this type of crime will learn as he did, you will be caught and you will go to jail.”
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