ST. GEORGE — A Washington County man was sentenced to prison Wednesday during a hearing in federal court after pleading guilty to using interstate facilities to transmit information about a minor.
James Steed Allred, 41, of Apple Valley, will serve five years in prison — the maximum sentence allowed under federal law — after pleading guilty to one felony count of the use of mail, facility of interstate or foreign, including the use of a computer, to send information about a minor under the age of 16 for criminal sexual purposes.
Once Allred is released from prison, court records indicate he will spend the next 15 years under post-prison supervision.
According to the indictment filed in federal court, Allred targeted a 14-year-old victim by using a fake social media account he created in April 2020.
The defendant admitted to creating a false online persona under the name of “Cameron Baxter” to contact the teen living in North Dakota, and he also set up a Snapchat account and profile with photos indicating he was a teenage boy living in Washington County. At the time, Allred was 39 and living in Southern Utah, and from there, Allred engaged in extensive romantic communications with the youth.
“I told her that I loved her and planned to marry her,” the defendant stated in court documents.
Federal documents also state the defendant sent gifts in an attempt to lure the teen so the suspect could engage in illegal sexual activity with the minor. Those gifts included clothing, flowers and furniture, including a flower arrangement that was sent from Utah to North Dakota. This also supported the interstate facilities charge since the defendant admitted to using an interstate facility to engage in sexual activity “knowing” the recipient was an underage girl.
In April of the following year, the minor moved to Colorado City, Arizona, with her family, which is when the defendant admitted to traveling from Utah to Arizona. Allred continued to engage in illegal sexual conduct with the victim multiple times until the end of May 2021, “while continuing to deceive the teen that he was a teenage boy,” federal documents say.
On April 20, 2022, Allred was indicted and the case was filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Dent. Allred was formally charged with one count of use of interstate facilities to transmit information about a minor, which under federal law, includes the use of a computer, who is under the age of 16 for criminal sexual purposes. He pleaded guilty to the charge Sept. 19, 2022.
A series of motions and continuations followed until Wednesday when the defendant appeared before U.S. District Court Judge David Nuffer and was sentenced to serve the maximum sentence allowed under federal law — five years in federal prison.
U.S. Attorney Trina A. Higgins said in the statement Thursday that the U.S. Attorney’s Office is committed to protecting minor victims from violent criminals who “prey on their innocence via the internet,” and this case serves as a testament to the efforts of the law enforcement partners that investigated the case that will ultimately help the child “heal from the trauma inflicted by this crime.”
Online predators – an ever-present danger
The U.S. Department of Justice says the number of computer-facilitated sexual exploitation crimes committed against children—including videos depicting sexual crimes upon children – and “traveler” or enticement crimes — will continue to grow.
The FBI estimates there are roughly 500,000 online predators active each day, and more than half of the victims of an online predator are between the ages of 12 and 15.
This means every time a child logs on to the internet using their phone, tablet or computer, they are susceptible to predators or those who can do them harm. The findings showed that 40% of kids in grades 4-8 reported they connected or chatted online with a stranger, and 30% texted a stranger.
Of those, more than half revealed their phone number to a stranger, 6% gave their home address and more than one-fifth of the children in this category spoke to the stranger.
Moreover, 15% of the children in that category tried to meet with a stranger, and 11% did in fact meet a stranger – either at their own home, the stranger’s home, a park or a restaurant.
The Center for Missing and Exploited Children states nearly 80% of child victims are girls, while more than 80% of online predators are men. The center also states that 98% of online predators have never met their child targets in real life.
While 2% may seem like an insignificant number with the half-million online predators who are on the computer during any given day, this equates to roughly 10,000 who have statistically met with or possibly met their targets in person.
Last year, the Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce, or ICAC, conducted more than 137,000 investigations and 90,000 forensic exams that resulted in more than 10,400 arrests. The multi-jurisdictional program targets the ever-increasing dangers associated with online threats targeted toward children.
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