Rocky Mount Man Sentenced on Enticement Charges

Roanoke, VIRGINIA – A Rocky Mount man, who contacted at least two local teenagers via social media and exchanged explicit sexual messages with them and attempted to coerce them into meeting with him to engage in sex acts, was sentenced today in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Roanoke, Acting United States Attorney Rick A. Mountcastle announced.

David Lee Fox, 63, of Rocky Mount, Va., previously pled guilty to two counts of coercion and enticement of a juvenile. Today in District Court, Fox was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison and 20 years of supervised release upon his release.

According to evidence presented at previous hearings by Assistant United States Attorney Ronald M. Huber, in August 2015 Fox initiated contact with a 14-year-old female, Victim A, via Facebook. Victim A initially ignored the defendant, who over numerous days continued to attempt to engage her in conversation.

On September 30, Victim A responded to Fox’s attempts at conversation and Fox told Victim A she was pretty. The conversation quickly turned sexual, with Fox asking if Victim A had a picture of herself in a bar or bikini and if she could take one and send it to him. Fox told Victim A to promise not to tell anybody about their conversation. Victim A told her parents about the exchanges with Fox. On that same day, Victim A’s parents contacted the ICAC/Franklin County Sheriff Office about the exchanges and gave law enforcement permission to assume control of Victim A’s Facebook account. All messages from Victim A’s Facebook account after that date were controlled by law enforcement.

Between October 2 and October 22, Fox initiated contact with Victim A’s Facebook account multiple times. On October 21, Fox asked Victim A is she knew Victim B.

On October 22 Fox expressed concern about Victim A’s family discovering their conversation, but Victim A reassured him. Fox then went on to discuss his penis size and asked Victim A about her breasts as well as her sexual experiences. Fox asked if Victim A would meet him and continued to describe sexual acts he would like to do to Victim A. Victim A agreed to meet Fox at the Franklin County Baptist Church around 4 p.m. on the afternoon of October 22.

On the afternoon of October 22, an investigator with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, the Virginia State Police and the Rocky Mount Police waited at the church for Fox to arrive. When law enforcement observed a man fitting Fox’s description arrive in the church’s parking lot to meet who he thought was Victim A, he was arrested and charged with solicitation of a minor to perform sex acts.

Prior to his arrest, Fox was also simultaneously being investigated for his online interactions with another minor female. On October 2, 2015, a Roanoke County Police detective contacted the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office regarding Victim B, another juvenile female, who had received a suspicious message from Fox’s Facebook account. The parents of Victim B gave law enforcement permission to assume control of their daughter’s Facebook account.

As with Victim A, Fox again engaged in sexual conversations with Victim B, asking her to send him pictures of herself in her bra and bikini and stressed to not let anyone know what the two of them were talking about. Unlike with Victim A, with Victim B, Fox initially lied about his age, at first saying he was a teenager himself before later admitting he was much older.

Throughout multiple conversations, Fox repeatedly described sex acts he wanted to perform on Victim B, sent her images of himself and images sexual in nature and, on multiple occasions attempted to make plans to meet her in person. The night Fox and Victim B planned to meet in person, Fox cancelled, telling Victim B he had to go out of town, however, he was in fact going to meet Victim A, where he was ultimately arrested.

The investigation of the case was conducted by Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, the Southern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Franklin County Commonwealth’s Attorney, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations, the Virginia State Police and the Rocky Mount Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Ronald M. Huber prosecuted the case for the United States.