Show-Me State Times

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Tuesday sentenced a former youth sports coach to 140 months in prison for attempting to have sex with a 13-year-old girl.

On September 24, 2023, Trevor White, then 41, sent a text message to a 13-year-old girl he knew. According to his plea agreement, White asked for her photo and engaged in a series of messages about her clothing and their past interactions, seeking a “positive response” from the victim. He concluded the conversation by sending her a shirtless photo of himself.

The teen reported the suspicious conversation to her parents, who contacted St. Louis County police. The parents allowed a detective to use their daughter's phone, assume her identity, and continue the conversation with White. Over several days, White's messages became increasingly sexually explicit as he sought to arrange a meeting for sexual activity and requested sexually explicit photos from the "teen." He also sent two explicit images of himself.

On September 29, St. Louis County detectives interviewed White at his home. He admitted participating in the text conversations, asking the teen for sexually explicit photos, and arranging to meet her at a park for sex.

White, of Fenton, Missouri, pleaded guilty in April in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to attempted coercion and enticement of a minor.

In a letter to the court, the teen’s parents stated that White obtained their daughter's contact information during a fundraiser transaction. “Within hours of that exchange,” they wrote, “he had already begun to contact her via text message in ways that were inappropriate, predatory, and grotesque.” They added that their daughter was “very shaken and deeply troubled by this.”

The St. Louis County Police Department investigated the case while Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hayes prosecuted it.

This case was part of Project Safe Childhood—a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 aimed at combating child sexual exploitation and abuse. The project marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet while identifying and rescuing victims.

For more information about Project Safe Childhood visit www.justice.gov/psc.