infoWest Virginia man receives 11 years in prison for using Snap Chat to meet 14 year old

West Virginia man receives 11 years in prison for using Snap Chat to meet 14 year old

Michael Darnell Ramsey, 47, pled guilty to attempted sex trafficking of a minor.

These are heinous crimes, said United States Attorney Mike Stuart. We are working closely with our law enforcement partners to hold offenders accountable and bring justice to victims. If you are preying on West Virginia's most vulnerable we're coming for you.

Ramsey admitted that he was communicating via Snapchat with a person he believed to be a 14-year-old minor that he had previously met in person. During these conversations, Ramsey offered to pay the 14-year-old $200 to engage in two sexual acts. On April 3, 2020, Ramsey traveled to a meeting location in Greenbrier County to meet the minor to engage in the commercial sex acts, at which time he was placed under arrest.\n \nRamsey was sentenced to 135 months in prison for attempted sex trafficking of a minor. Upon release from prison, Ramsey will serve a term of 25 years of supervised release and be required to register as a sex offender.

The West Virginia State Police, the Greenbrier County Sheriff's Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's West Virginia Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force conducted the investigation.

The case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative of the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.