Source: Office of United States Attorneys
Fort Myers, Florida – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces that a federal jury has found Vincent Joseph Robusto (41, Georgia) guilty of transporting a minor with intent to engage in sexual activity and possessing a firearm after a felony conviction. Robusto faces a maximum penalty of life in federal prison. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 5, 2025. Robusto was indicted on December 1, 2021.
According to evidence presented at trial, beginning in at least February 2021 Robusto discussed sexual activity with a minor via chat on a social media application. In July 2021, Robusto purchased an airline ticket for the minor. He provided the airline with the minor’s name and date of birth, confirming that Robusto knew the child’s age. On July 17, 2021, Robusto caused the minor to travel from Texas to the Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers. Surveillance video from the airport captured Robusto picking up the minor.
Within a few days, the parent of the minor contacted the Dilley (Texas) Police Department to report the minor missing and shared the locations of the minor’s cellphone using a locator application. The Dilley Police Department reached out to the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office for assistance in locating the minor and provided the residential address of a home in Port Charlotte that the locator application indicated.
On July 23, 2021, at approximately 3:00 a.m., deputies from the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the Port Charlotte residence and found Robusto at the residence with the minor. During the execution of a search warrant at the residence, law enforcement located a firearm and ammunition contained in Robusto’s backpack located on a kitchen table. Robusto, a previously convicted felon, is prohibited from possessing a firearm or ammunition under federal law.
Subsequently, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement conducted DNA analysis on evidence obtained in this case. The Crime Laboratory Analyst from the Biology Section found Robusto’s DNA on the rough surfaces of the firearm and in the analysis of the sexual assault kit that had been collected from the minor.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Fort Myers Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, with the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office. Additional assistance was provided by the Dilley Police Department, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and the Lee County Port Authority. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Yolande G. Viacava and Benjamin S. Winter.
This is another case brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, 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 Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.