CHARLESTON, S.C. — Robert W. Nazzaro, 70, of Charleston, has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for attempted online coercion and enticement of a minor.
Evidence obtained in the investigation revealed that in July and August of 2023, Nazzaro identified two purported minors on Craigslist and began chatting with them. Those purported minors, identified online as a 13-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl, were undercover law enforcement officers. Nazzaro acknowledged each of the purported minors’ ages and had sexually explicit conversations with them through email and text messages. He explained sexual concepts and discussed sexual preferences, asked for explicit photographs of each of the minors, and discussed the potential of meeting in the future. Nazzaro sent nude photographs to each purported minor as well as numerous links to pornography. While engaged in this conduct, Nazzaro was a registered sex offender stemming from an April 2023 state conviction for sexual exploitation of a minor and dissemination of obscene material to a minor. United States District Judge Bruce Howe Hendricks sentenced Robert W. Nazzaro to 120 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by a life term of court-ordered supervision. There is no parole in the federal system. 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.
This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, and the South Carolina Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force with assistance from the Charleston Police Department and Mount Pleasant Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dean H. Secor prosecuted the case.