JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 30-year-old Marine lance corporal who pleaded guilty to trying to entice a 13-year-old to send him sexually explicit photos of herself was sentenced to 15 years and 10 months in federal prison.
David Wayne Hogle Jr. was also ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release, pay $26,500 in restitution to child victims, forfeit his electronic devices and register as a sex offender.
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Hogle was arrested on July 29, 2022, at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina and was brought to Jacksonville for prosecution. He pleaded guilty on March 23.
According to court documents, on July 13, 2022, an FBI agent (UC) in Jacksonville began an undercover child sexual exploitation sting online and posted a message in a public chat room, posing as the “mother” of a 13-year-old child.
Using the screen name “Kaligula,” Hogle responded, “Interested in domination, degrading, breeding, inc’est, and very young girls.”
When asked about his age preference for children, Hogle responded, “No lower age limit.”
The agent explained that her “daughter” was 13 years old, and Hogle replied, “Typically [I] like younger …” After exchanging phone numbers, Hogle texted the agent, “So when do I get to see … your daughter?”
Hogle sent the agent a hyperlink to a cloud storage account that contained 28 photos of infants and toddler-aged children being sexually abused.
Two days later, Hogle texted the agent, who was also portraying the “child.” Hogle typed, “I understand your only 13, so there is going to be a lot of things you still need to learn. I [am] happy to teach you about them.” Hogle then requested that the “child” take a “naughty pic” of “her” private parts for him. The following day, Hogle texted the “child,” asking again for an explicit photo of “her.” To demonstrate what kind of picture he wanted the “child” to take, Hogle sent the “child” a photo of his own privates.
The FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service confirmed that Hogle was a lance corporal in the United States Marine Corps stationed at MCAS Cherry Point. Hogle accessed the internet during his online conversations with the UC while onboard MCAS Cherry Point.
On July 29, 2022, Hogle was arrested by FBI agents onboard MCAS Cherry Point. During an interview, Hogle admitted, among other things, that he had sent the UC a hyperlink containing child sexual abuse materials to show to the “child,” that he directed the “child” to take a picture of her “privates,” and that he was sexually interested in children. A search of Hogle’s computer revealed that it contained 162 images and 45 videos, many of which depicted infants, toddlers, and young children being sexually abused.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Jacksonville, Florida and Greenville, North Carolina, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown. Assistant United States Attorney Mai Tran handled the forfeiture of Hogle’s electronic devices.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.