Fayetteville Man Sentenced to 30 Months Imprisonment for Failing to Register as a Sex Offender

GREENVILLE — United States Attorney Robert J. Higdon, Jr., announced that today in federal court, Senior United States District Judge Malcolm J. Howard, sentenced LAQUAVIS DESHAWN ARCHER, 32, of Fayetteville to 30 months’ imprisonment, followed by 5 years of supervised release.  ARCHER was named in a single-count Indictment on April 17, 2019, charging him with failing to register as a sex offender.  On July 8, 2019, he pled guilty to the Indictment. 

According to the investigation, on July 13, 2007, ARCHER was convicted of three counts of child molestation and one count of incest in Cobb County, GA.  ARCHER was sentenced to 3 years’ incarceration and required to register as a sex offender for his lifetime. ARCHER first registered as a sex offender on July 2, 2009.  On April 28, 2015, ARCHER was convicted in Georgia state court of failure to register as a sex offender.  At that time, ARCHER again signed a form acknowledging his responsibility to register as a sex offender and to keep law enforcement informed of his residence if he were to move.  In September of 2017, however, the Fulton County Sheriff's Office in Georgia found that ARCHER had absconded and obtained an arrest warrant for state sex offender registry violations.

The investigation revealed that ARCHER had relocated to North Carolina.  Law enforcement obtained employment records showing that ARCHER had taken up residence in Fayetteville, NC, in August of 2017, and resided there until the time of his state arrest on July 10, 2018.  During a post-arrest interview, ARCHER admitted that he had traveled to North Carolina during the summer of 2017 and had remained there as a resident.  ARCHER had not registered as a sex offender in North Carolina, as required under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

This case is part of the Project Safe Childhood initiative, a national program aimed at ensuring that criminals exploiting children are effectively prosecuted by making full use of all available law enforcement resources at every level.  For more information about this important national initiative, go to www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

The U.S. Marshals Service conducted the investigation.  Assistant United States Attorney Jake D. Pugh represented the government.  

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