David W. Evans - gets 17 years for being an INTERNET PREDATOR

A Buffalo man who used a fake MySpace page to attract the attention of teenage girls was sentenced to 17 years and six months in prison today by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara.

The judge handed down his sentence after hearing emotional statements by two of the teenage victims of David W. Evans, 48.

Evans called himself "sex master Adam" and posted a picture of a handsome 20-year-old man on his MySpace social networking page, according to Cheektowaga Police and FBI agents who arrested him last year.

Within months, at Evans' request, dozens of women and teenage girls sent him lewd pictures of themselves over the Internet, or by using their cellular telephones, Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron J. Mango said.

Evans, a local cafeteria worker, pleaded guilty in September to four felony counts of creating child porn. Mango said he created the child porn by "coercing" teenage girls into sending him lewd pictures of themselves.

John F. Humann, a federal public defender who represented Evans, said his client has an I.Q. measured at 60, which qualifies him as mentally retarded. Humann acknowledged that his client committed serious federal crimes but said Evans denied threatening any of the girls who sent him pictures.

According to Dr. Charles E. Ewing, a psychologist and University at Buffalo Law School professor, mental retardation can be a "mitigating factor" in determining prison sentences.

"[In 2002] the Supreme Court ruled that someone who is mentally retarded can no longer be given the death penalty," Ewing said. "But mentally retarded people are convicted of crimes and sent to prison, all the time."

Despite his mental deficiencies, Evans was savvy enough to create a fake Web identity and use it to obtain hundreds of nude pictures of girls, Arcara noted today.

The judge said he also found it upsetting that Evans threatened some of the minor victims, telling one victim he would kill her if she stopped sending nude pictures, and another that he would send her pictures to her parents and post them on the Internet if she stopped.

Evans apologized for his actions.