A Tennessee man has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for traveling to Iowa to solicit sex from a juvenile. According to records from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, 52-year-old Shawn Christopher Powell of Powell, Tenn., was sentenced on Thursday to 120 months after pleading guilty to felony attempted enticement of a minor. Prosecutors say Powell communicated with a person he believed to be a 13-year-old female between May and August of 2025 and exchanged messages about wanting to engage in sexual activity with said minor. In August 2025, Powell traveled from Tennessee to Iowa to meet up with the minor and was found to possess condoms, sex toys, prescription pills, and children’s clothing when he was intercepted by law enforcement. Following Powell’s prison term, he will be required to complete a five-year term of supervised release. The case was brought as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Project Safe Childhood, a two-decade-old initiative targeting child sexual exploitation and abuse. The investigation into this case was led by the Cass County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Child Exploitation Task Force.
