Wendell Ray Short, Jr., Failing to Register as a Sex Offender, Oklahoma 2024

TULSA, Okla. – A sex offender living in Bartlesville was sentenced today for Failing to Register as a Sex Offender, announced U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson.

U.S. District Judge John F. Heil, III, sentenced Wendell Ray Short, Jr., 36, to eight months imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release. Upon his release, Short will also be required to register as a sex offender.

In May 2016, Short pleaded guilty to indecency with a child by contact in Texas. He was sentenced to six years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and ordered to register as a sex offender once released. Court documents show that Short registered in Texas in 2021; however, failed to report in 2023. Sometime in 2024, Short moved in with his girlfriend and her minor child in Bartlesville and failed to register in Oklahoma.

Short will remain in custody pending transfer to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

The U.S. Marshal Service investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Augustus Forster prosecuted the case.

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 CEOS, 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 Justice.gov/PSC.

MORE FEDERAL CRIME NEWS

Sex Crimes

Ismael Valdez, Attempted Enticement of a Minor, New Mexico 2023

Sep 1, 2020

Sex Crimes

Gary Wayne Lilly, Interstate Child Sex Solicitation, West Virginia 2019

Aug 31, 2020

Sex Crimes

James Bowen, Child Pornography, Missouri 2016

Jul 29, 2016

Sex Crimes

Robert A. Ryan, Distributing Child Pornography, Nebraska 2023

Sep 7, 2023