Texas man traveled to LC for sex with minor
A Texas man has been sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison for traveling to Lake Charles to have sex with a 12-year-old.
Wendell Eaves, 61, of Kirbyville, Texas, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jay C. Zainey and received 57 months in prison on one count of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual contact with a minor.
He was also sentenced to 20 years of supervised release and will have to register as a sex offender.
According to his June 11 guilty plea, Eaves communicated with a group of people who said they had a 12-year-old girl available for prostitution.
Investigators determined that Eaves planned to meet the girl at a casino here on Sept. 22, 2017, but law enforcement uncovered the plan and arrested him at the casino.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Lake Charles Police Department conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Luke Walker was the prosecutor.
This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a U.S. Department of Justice nationwide initiative to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. The initiative is led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. It combines federal, state and local resources to apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet.