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Fairfield County resident Wayne Marcell, age 36, of Danbury, was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison Tuesday, July 12, in US District Court in Bridgeport.
It came three months after he pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of a child.
Federal prosecutors said Marcell drove from Connecticut to Illinois in June 2021 after paying another person $2,000 to bring the girl there from Texas. The two had previously communicated on video game and social media platforms.
After picking up the teen, Marcell brought her to his home in Danbury, where he engaged in multiple illicit sexual acts with her, prosecutors said. He also took photos and videos of the abuse.
Marcell was arrested in June 2021 and copped to the federal charges in April 2022.
In addition to his prison time, he was ordered to pay more than $86,000 in restitution to his victim plus a $30,000 fine.
Investigators said the 14-year-old victim is originally from Georgia, but traveled to Texas in May 2021 after meeting another man, Robert Fyke, on an online video game platform.
She lived with the man for approximately four weeks, during which time he produced sexually explicit images of the victim, prosecutors said.
Fyke later pleaded guilty to federal charges in the Northern District of Texas and was sentenced to 30 years in prison in December 2021.
The case was prosecuted as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood, a coordinated effort between local, state, and federal agencies to track down individuals who exploit children using the internet.
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