Texas Man Sentenced To 30 Years In Prison For Traveling To North Carolina To Engage In Sexual Activity With A Child

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - A Texas man was sentenced to 30 years in prison today for traveling to North Carolina to engage in sexual activity, enticement, and production of child pornography with a child, announced Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Rusty Joseph Whittaker, 44, of Austin, was also ordered to serve 10 years of supervised release and to register as a sex offender. A federal jury convicted Whittaker in September 2025, following a four-day trial.

Reid Davis, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in North Carolina, and Chief Estella D. Patterson of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD), join U.S. Attorney Ferguson in making today's announcement.

"Predators like Rusty Whittaker are a parent's worst nightmare," said U.S. Attorney Ferguson. "This defendant traveled across state lines to exploit a child, used technology to conceal his crimes, and inflicted long-lasting trauma on a vulnerable victim. A lengthy sentence ensures that Whittaker will never have the opportunity to harm another child."

"Whitaker intentionally targeted, groomed, and violated a child for his own sexual gratification. While it is difficult to understand how anyone could do something like this, it is the stark reality of the danger lurking online every day. We must talk to our children to prevent them from being victimized by disgusting predators like Whitaker," said FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Reid.

According to filed court documents, evidence presented at trial, and witness testimony, Whittaker met the minor in an online platform called Antiland, which provides its users anonymity and automatically deletes messages and content shared by its users. Whittaker then moved the conversation to Snapchat, which also automatically deletes messages and content. Using these online messaging platforms, online payment platforms, and other means, Whittaker solicited and viewed sexually explicit images and videos of the victim while continuing to pressure the victim to meet him in person for illicit sexual activity. On May 20, 2023, Whittaker traveled from Nashville, where he was attending a conference, to Charlotte for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual activity with the minor. Trial evidence showed that Whittaker waited for the minor's father to fall asleep, picked her up from her home, drove her to a hotel, and engaged in sexual activity with the minor. Whittaker provided the minor things of value before driving her back home and dropping her off a distance away from her home, leaving her to walk barefoot.

In sentencing Whittaker, Senior U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney, Jr., said, "This is a case that is very serious. It involves planning and manipulation of a child. The word needs to go out that we won't put up with this."

Whittaker remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service until he is transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.

The FBI investigated the case assisted by CMPD.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Cervantes of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Charlotte is prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.