Florida Man Gets 90-Month Sentence In Chattanooga Federal Court In Child Sex Case

  • Thursday, March 27, 2025

A Florida man was sentenced to 90 months in a child sex case in Chattanooga Federal Court.

Rodney Paul Martin, 58, of Homosassa, Fla., appeared before Judge Charles E. Atchley, Jr.,

Following Martin’s imprisonment, he will be on supervised release for 15 years and will be required to register with state sex offender registries and comply with special sex offender conditions.

As part of the plea agreement filed with the court, Martin agreed to plead guilty to an indictment charging him with one count of enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity.

According to the filed plea agreement, Martin, using a social media platform, contacted a notional 15-year-old minor boy, who was, in fact, an undercover officer with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Using a messaging application, Martin attempted to entice the notional minor into creating sexually explicit images and transmitting those images to Martin over the internet.

U.S. Attorney, Francis M. Hamilton III, of the Eastern District of Tennessee; and Special Agent in Charge, Joseph E. Carrico, of the FBI, made the announcement.

The criminal indictment was the result of an investigation by the FBI. Special Assistant United States Attorney Charles D. Minor, assigned from the Hamilton County District Attorney’s Office, and Assistant United States Attorney James T. Brooks represented the United States.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006, by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. 

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