A Waterloo man has been sentenced to 168 months in federal prison for attempting to entice a minor to engage in illicit sexual activities, according to court documents and evidence presented at sentencing.
Authorities said Gabriel Keith Usher, 47, began communicating online in October 2023 with an undercover officer who was posing as a 15-year-old minor. Within days of initiating contact, Usher expressed romantic feelings toward the individual and suggested engaging in sexual acts. Law enforcement seized his cell phone when he arrived at a designated meeting location.
Usher was previously sentenced in October 2024 by Black Hawk County, Iowa, to five years in state prison on unrelated charges of enticing a minor under age 16 and sexual exploitation of a minor.
Following his federal prison term, Usher will be subject to ten years of supervised release and is required to register as part of his sentence. There is no parole available in the federal system.
“This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc. For information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the resources tab,” according to United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa.
The Iowa City Police Department investigated this case.
