ALBANY, NEW YORK – Tristan Warner, age 48, of Newark, New Jersey, was sentenced today to 120 months in prison for the attempted online enticement of a minor, announced United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Janeen DiGuiseppi, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
As part of his guilty plea, Warner admitted that between about October 2020 and January 15, 2021, he exchanged electronic messages, via text and through a social networking platform, with someone he believed to be the mother of an 11-year-old girl. In those messages, Warner expressed an interest in meeting the minor girl and in engaging in sexual acts with her. He also communicated by telephone with someone he believed to be the girl’s mother. On January 15, 2021, Warner drove from Newark to a pre-determined location in Watervliet, New York, to meet and engage in sexual acts with the minor. He brought with him condoms, stuffed animals and two sex-related devices to give to the girl as gifts. Warner was then encountered by law enforcement and arrested.
United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino also imposed a 15-year term of supervised release to follow the term of incarceration.
This case was investigated by the FBI and its Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes members of the New York State Police and the Colonie Police Department, and the Watervliet Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Belliss.
This case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood. Launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, Project Safe Childhood is led by United States Attorney’s offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.