JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A California man was sentenced to over 20 years in prison for child exploitation and attempting to take a missing 12-year-old girl on a bus from Jacksonville to California, according to the Department of Justice.
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Court documents said on Nov. 2, 2023, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office responded to a Greyhound bus station to investigate a missing girl. Officers found the girl with Gyasi Wallace, 33 who bought two bus tickets to California for him and the girl.
He was arrested and the girl was reunited with her mother. Investigators searched Wallace’s electronic devices and found that he began talking to the girl on a social media site when she was 10-years-old.
The DOJ said his phone had photos and videos of the girl and other children engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
“The exploitation of children leaves scars that last a lifetime—including invisible scars not only for the victims, but for their families and communities,” Homeland Security Investigations Jacksonville Assistant Special Agent in Charge Tim Hemker said. “Wallace’s actions were calculated, predatory, and deeply destructive. His calculated attempt to flee across state lines with a minor victim—boarding a bus bound for California—shows the lengths predators will go to evade justice and continue their abuse. Child exploitation is not a crime that ends when the abuse stops; it inflicts lifelong trauma on victims and their families. HSI and our INTERCEPT Task Force partners will remain relentless in our pursuit of justice for victims.”