Indiana man sentenced to 15 years in prison for sex trafficking underage Montana girl

MISSOULA - An Indiana man who traveled to Montana to have sex with a minor, and had explicit images of her on his phone, was sentenced today to 15 years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Scott Twito said.

Brandon Cole Stoliby, 33, pleaded guilty in July 2026 to traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct and transportation of child pornography.

U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy presided.

The government alleged in court documents that Stoliby met a 15-year-old Montana girl through Snapchat, exchanged sexually explicit messages and photos with her, and then traveled from Indiana to Missoula with his wife and children to pick up the girl and take her back to his home in Indiana.

Stoliby and the girl met over Snapchat in March 2025. She presented herself as 18 and Stoliby quickly showed sexual interest in her, sending her explicit messages and persuading her to send him explicit images. Those images were later found on Stoliby's phone when he was eventually arrested in Montana.

By April 2025, the two had made plans for Stoliby to travel to Montana to pick her up and move her back to Indiana. Stoliby and the girl made plans for her to sell explicit images of herself to help cover the costs of the trip and the move. He arrived in Missoula County on April 6, 2025, and picked the girl up from her home. On the trip back to Indiana, while still in Montana, the two engaged in sexual intercourse. Law enforcement removed the girl from Stoliby's custody, telling him she was 15 years old. Despite this knowledge, Stoliby again tried to transport the girl to Indiana and retained Child Sex Abuse Material depicting the girl.

Stoliby was eventually arrested and admitted in interviews with law enforcement to exchanging sexually explicit images with the girl, engaging in a sexual relationship with her, and keeping explicit photos she had sent him.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Lowney prosecuted the case. Homeland Security Investigations and the Missoula County Sheriff's Department conducted the investigation.

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 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 Justice.gov/PSC.