COLUMBUS, Ohio – A Texas man was sentenced in federal court here today to 360 months in prison for exploitation crimes related to traveling to Ohio to have sex with a minor he met online playing Call of Duty. In February 2025, Harrison Michael Barton, 39, of North Detroit, Texas, took a 31-hour Greyhound bus trip from Florida to Coshocton County to sexually exploit a 15-year-old girl he met online approximately one month prior.
“Barton was a registered sex offender who traveled the country to commit crimes against a minor he met online,” said U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II. “He is a predator, and his history makes clear that he poses a grave and ongoing threat. My Office will never stop pursuing those who prey on children. We will prosecute these cases to the fullest extent of the law and seek multi-decade sentences like the one Barton received today.”
Barton was arrested at the John Glenn Columbus International Airport while attempting to fly to Florida with the victim.
At the time, Barton was wanted on an outstanding parole warrant out of Texas stemming from a prior conviction for online solicitation of a minor, in which he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Barton admitted that, in this instant case, the teenager picked him up in Newcomerstown, Ohio. Prior to arriving at the airport, the defendant admitted to engaging in sexual conduct with the minor and to taking sexually explicit pictures of the victim. Barton pleaded guilty in February 2026 to sexual exploitation of a minor and attempted kidnapping of a minor.
Dominick S. Gerace II, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Jason Cromartie, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division; Coshocton County Sheriff Christopher Walters; Newark Police Chief Erik McKee; and John Glenn Columbus International Airport Police Chief Ronald Gray announced the sentence imposed today by U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus, Jr. Assistant United States Attorneys Emily Czerniejewski and Jennifer M. Rausch are representing the United States in this case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and DOJ Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.justice.gov/psc.# # #