Man who served over 14 years in Georgia prison for child sex crimes sentenced to 18 more years

BALTIMORE, MD — A Maryland man who has already served over 14 years in a Georgia prison for child sex crimes has been sentenced to 18 additional years for attempted enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity.

Samuel Charles Hardeman, 55, of Easton, Maryland was convicted in a 2002 case in the Northern District of Georgia for using a computer to entice a child to engage in sexual activity.

He was sentenced to 14 and a half years for that crime.

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On Wednesday, Dec. 13, Hardeman was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison, followed by lifetime supervised release.

Once he is released from prison he must continue to register as a sex offender in the places where he lives, is employed, and is a student.

According to his guilty plea, from December 11, 2022, through December 26, 2022, Hardeman had conversations with an undercover law enforcement officer who claimed to have a 10-year-old daughter.

During those conversations, Hardeman told the undercover officer his desire to have sex with the girl and sent a child pornography video to the officer.

He also made plans to travel to New York, where the undercover agent claimed to live, to have sex with the girl.

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All of this happened while Hardeman was a registered sex offender for his previous federal sex offense conviction.

On March 14, 2023, agents searched Hardeman’s home and seized several electronic devices.

A forensic examination of one of the phones revealed the encrypted messages between Hardeman and the undercover agent, and dozens of images and videos showing minors engaged in sexually explicit activities.

Examination of his other devices and cloud storage account recovered even more child sex abuse material, including bestiality.

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