Morro Bay Man Sentenced for Trying to Entice Minor for Sex, DOJ Reports

In the Eastern District of Virginia, a man from Morro Bay was given 10 years in jail for trying to get a minor to do sexual behavior that was against the law.

A news release from the US Department of Justice says that on January 16, 30-year-old Cash Taylor Dalton pleaded guilty to a charge of enticing a child living in Prince William County, Virginia.

The FBI began looking into Dalton after the parents of the 12-year-old victim found messages between Dalton and their daughter, according to the statement.

According to the news release, the FBI investigation found that Dalton and the victim had been talking to each other for about three months. During that time, Dalton had sent the victim sexually explicit pictures of himself and explicit sexual messages via text and email, including messages telling her to do sexual things and telling her to record herself doing sexual things and send the recordings to him.

The victim and Dalton also talked about having sex in person, which is what led the FBI to check Dalton’s home in November 2024, according to the release.

The search order turned up proof of Dalton’s conversations with the victim and three other kids younger than 16, the news release said.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, which, according to the release, brings together federal, state, and local resources to find, arrest, and punish people who abuse children on the internet and to find and help victims.

The case was brought by trial lawyer Nadia Prinz from the Justice Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and assistant U.S. Attorney Alessandra Serano for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The first time this story was posted was May 1, 2025, at 2:42 PM.