Crawfordville Man Pleads Guilty to Attempted Enticement of Minor

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Anthony Wayne Lanier Jr., 34, of Crawfordville, Florida, pleaded guilty May 12 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida to one count of attempted enticement of a minor and one count of attempted transmission of obscene material.

The charges stemmed from Lanier’s online communications in which he sought to persuade a person he believed to be a 14-year-old girl to engage in sexual activity and sent explicit material, per the Department of Justice announcement. Federal law defines enticement of a minor under 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b) as using the internet or any facility of interstate commerce to knowingly persuade, induce, entice or coerce a minor to engage in prostitution or any sexual activity that could be charged as a criminal offense.

The obscene-material count falls under 18 U.S.C. § 1461.

A conviction on the enticement charge carries a statutory minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life. The obscene-material count carries up to 5 years. Sentencing has not been scheduled. Upon release Lanier will be required to register as a sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, subjecting him to lifetime monitoring, residency restrictions, and internet-use limitations in Florida and any state to which he may relocate.

The plea removes the case from trial docket and initiates the U.S. Probation Office’s presentence investigation. That report, due within 60 days under federal rules, will detail Lanier’s criminal history, background and victim impact statements before the judge imposes a final sentence.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida will recommend a term within federal guidelines that account for use of a computer and the age of the intended victim.

This case is the latest federal prosecution in the Northern District of Florida targeting online enticement of minors. The Department of Justice has pursued similar charges against more than 40 defendants in the district since 2022, each producing mandatory sex-offender registration and post-release supervision that lasts at least five years and often decades.

The plea also activates inter-agency information sharing: the FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement will update the national sex-offender registry once sentencing is complete.

Primary sources: U.S. Department of Justice