FORT PIERCE — A 38-year-old former cruise ship employee from Stuart will spend three decades in prison for convictions of enticing a girl he met on a ship into performing sexual acts with him and recording their encounters, a federal judge ruled Monday.
Daniel Scott Crow on Monday was ordered to serve 30 years in prison after pleading guilty in August on charges of enticing span minor spannd production of child pornogrspanphy.
U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez also ordered Crow to be supervised for life after his release from prison and imposed a $10,000 fine, court records show.
Crow was apprehended after an ex-girlfriend of his made a complaint to the Port St. Lucie Police Department regarding the relationship between Crow and the victim, according to Brian Ray, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, who wrote the federal complaint.
The ex-girlfriend discovered the relationship by checking Crow’s social media.
According to federal officials, Crow met the girl in July 2019 while he was working aboard a cruise ship. The girl, who was 16 at the time, was vacationing with her family aboard the ship. After the cruise, Crow contacted with the girl using the messaging service WhatsApp to solicit lewd photographs from her.
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In court papers, a federal prosecutor had urged Martinez to sentence Crow to 45 years in prison.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher H. Hudock noted in a sentencing memo that in May 2020, Crow, then 36, met the girl, who had turned 17, at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Stuart, where he recorded their sexual activities.
“The defendant later distributed this video to the victim,” Hudock wrote.
Authorities later confiscated Crow’s iPhone at Philadelphia International Airport after he got off a flight from London, records show.
Federal agents discovered three “child sex abuse videos” recorded with the girl located on Crow’s phone.
Investigators found location data showing Crow was in Martin and St. Lucie counties when soliciting pornography and sex from the teen.
Agents also found chats with an unidentified person in which Crow discussed the “ability to obtain children for sex” and then “reiterates his interest in traveling to have sex.”
Crow had received child pornography from the unidentified person, according to Hudock, including “over 600 images or videos of child pornography,” some depicting minors under age 12.
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On Aug. 12, Crow pleaded guilty to two counts, including enticement of a minor and production of child pornography.
Crow’s attorney, Richard Kibbey, in court papers sought a maximum sentence of 15 years, in part because of the age of the victim.
Kibbey noted that in some states, including Georgia, Alabama, Alaska and Missouri “teenagers aged 16 or 17 can lawfully engage in sexual relations with adults.”
“The decision in this case to prosecute behavior which is legal in other states is an arbitrary decision, wrongly decided by the federal government,” Kibbey argued in a sentencing memo.
He also argued that the mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years required for the production charge “is more than sufficient for the crimes the defendant has been convicted of.”
Hudock, though, argued in his memo that Crow’s actions were not a “one-time mistake” but “calculated decisions based on his own deeply held sexual desires.”
“The defendant was a man in a position of trust, acting as a cruise entertainer responsible for the care and entertainment of children,” Hudock wrote. “He abused that trust when he developed a personal relationship with the victim in this case … that led to prohibited sexual activity, activities that he filmed.”