Jury Convicts Marion Man of Attempted Enticement of a Minor

A man who attempted to entice a minor to engage in sex acts was convicted by a jury on Wednesday, July 3, 2024, after a one-and-a-half-day trial in federal court in Cedar Rapids.

Cory Gall, age 30, of Marion, Iowa, was found guilty of attempted enticement of a minor.

The evidence at trial showed that, in December 2023, Gall exchanged text messages with a person who stated that she was 13 years old.  The person was actually an undercover law enforcement officer.  Gall sent messages describing sex acts he could perform with the minor, and he traveled to Hiawatha, Iowa, to meet with her.

Sentencing before United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams will be set after a presentence report is prepared.  Gall remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing.  Gall faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of life imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, $5,100 in special assessments, and supervised release for 5 years to life following any imprisonment.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and the Hiawatha Police Department.

This case was 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.usdoj.gov/psc.  For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.  The case file number is CR 24-32.

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