PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A convicted sex offender has been sentenced to 35 years in prison after admitting to enticing a 12-year-old girl for sex and then launching a murder-for-hire plot to kill her, the U.S. Attorney said this week.
Chander J. Cardente, 30, pleaded guilty in federal court on March 20 to enticement of a minor, commission of a felony while being required to register as a sex offender, and interstate murder for hire, Acting U.S. Attorney Sara Miron Bloom said in a statement.
On Monday, U.S. District Court Senior Judge William Smith sentenced Cardente to 420 months of incarceration and 30 years of federal supervised release, with the term of incarceration commencing on Dec. 11, 2021, to include the time Cardente has been held prior to sentencing.
Cardente was previously convicted in a Rhode Island state court for child molestation, which required him to register as a sex offender, Miron Bloom said.
According to court documents, in the summer of 2021, Cardente, while posing as a 17-year-old, began communicating with the minor victim through a messaging app. He told the girl that he was interested in having sex with her.
In December 2021, he met the girl a short distance from her middle school, drove her to various locations in Rhode Island, and engaged in sexual contact with her multiple times, prosecutors said. Cardente was subsequently arrested and detained in state custody.
While being held at the Adult Correctional Institutions, Cardente communicated by telephone with another person, expressing his intent that the girl be killed.
In a conversation with an undercover law enforcement officer, Cardente told the officer that the victim needed “to end up dead” because she was “a witness,” prosecutors said.
Cardente offered the undercover officer $200 in cash and equipment worth $1,500 for the murder-for-hire plot, prosecutors said.
Cardente faced both federal and state prosecution in this matter.
On May 1, at a hearing before Superior Court Justice David Cruise, Cardente plead nolo contendere to six counts of first-degree child molestation.
Cruise sentenced Cardente to 60 years with 35 to serve and 60 years of probation.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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