Source: Office of United States Attorneys
TULSA, Okla. – In November 2024, a jury found Thomas Edward Petro, 32, of Ashtabula, Ohio, guilty of Coercion and Enticement of a Minor.
Today, U.S. District Judge Gregory K. Frizzell, sentenced Petro to 140 months imprisonment, followed by 10 years of supervised release. Upon release, Petro will be required to register as a sex offender.
“Petro enticed this child using social media,” said U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson. “I encourage parents and guardians to talk with your children. Know who they spend time with and what they do on their cell phones. Sexual predators like Petro are skilled in befriending children and taking advantage of them.”
The evidence presented at trial showed that Petro lived in Ohio and met the minor child through an app. Petro shared hundreds of sexually explicit messages, voice recordings, pictures, and videos of himself with a 13-year-old minor child. Petro requested the minor to take sexually explicit images and send them to him. Knowing the victim was 13, Petro asked the victim to keep their relationship a secret.
The inappropriate relationship was discovered when the minor child told a friend. That friend told the school resource officer, who immediately contacted the principal and reported the incident to the FBI.
When the lead FBI agent testified, he confirmed that the minor child did disclose that they were only 13 years old. After going over all of the sexually explicit evidence in front of the jury, the agent also confirmed that Petro never asked the minor child to stop engaging in sexual activity.
Petro was taken into custody following the guilty verdict. He will remain in custody, pending transfer to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. The FBI and Adair Police Department investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kate Brandon and Scott Dunn prosecuted it.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section leads PSC, which marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and identifies and rescues victims. For more information about PSC, please visit DOJ’s PSC page. For more information about internet safety education, please visit the resources tab on that page.