Man Who Sought Sex With Boy Is Sentenced

A Mississippi man was sentenced Monday to seven years and four months in federal prison after being convicted of traveling from Mississippi to Orange County for the purpose of having sex with a teenage boy, assistant U.S. Atty. Richard Lee said.

Daniel Diamond Tucker, 53, was arrested at a fast-food restaurant in Fountain Valley on July 19, 2003, where he was planning to meet a 13-year-old boy he had met and courted over the Internet, officials said.

The “boy” was actually an undercover Fountain Valley police officer working with the FBI, authorities said. Tucker was ordered detained without bond and pleaded guilty Dec. 19 to one count of interstate travel in order to have sex with a minor.

Initially, Tucker had been charged with two counts. The second was for using the Internet, which is an interstate facility, to entice a minor to engage in improper conduct, Lee said.

Officials said Tucker was first noticed by the FBI in June 2003 when he communicated by e-mail with the officer posing as a boy. Over the next four weeks, Tucker made arrangements to meet with the officer and they exchanged hundreds of e-mails as Tucker traveled from Gulfport, Miss., to Fountain Valley, Lee said.

At Monday’s sentencing, U.S. District Judge James Selna also ordered that Tucker be supervised for the rest of his life after his prison term. He will also have to register as a sex offender.