Corvallis man sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for soliciting minor online
A Corvallis man was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in federal prison for crimes he committed in Salem and Keizer in 2020, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Oregon said.
Thomas Anthony Lanier, 28, pled guilty in January to charges of attempting to entice a minor online and possessing a firearm as a felon.
Prosecutors said Lanier pressured a Keizer woman he met online into soliciting babysitting jobs so he could gain access to children and later told her he wanted to have sex with her 12-year-old cousin, who he had seen in a photo.
The woman reported Lanier to police after he expressed interest in her cousin, according to prosecutors. The Salem Police Department directed her to give Lanier the address of a house in Salem under the pretense that her cousin lived there.
The house was actually empty and owned by the City of Salem. Police arrested Lanier on July 9, 2020. The case was investigated by Salem and Keizer Police Departments and the FBI.
This was not his first offense. Lanier has been a registered sex offender since 2013 for sodomy and contributing to the sexual delinquency of a minor, and for which he violated probation, according to Lincoln County court records.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said Lanier also was charged with second-degree kidnapping and domestic violence in 2019 in Sunnyside, Washington after he allegedly took the infant of a woman he met online while the baby's mother was in the shower and then subsequently threatened to kill the woman.
Lanier was arrested on the 2019 charges but was released pending trial.
Lanier was sentenced Wednesday on the charges from the 2020 case to 15 years in federal prison plus a life term of supervised release.
Shannon Sollitt covers trending and news now for the Statesman Journal. Send tips, questions and comments to ssollitt@statesmanjournal.com
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon sex offender sentenced to 15 years in federal prison
