Randall Wolford

> "I would love to taste you, Sequoia."
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>  - Randy expressing his sexual desires.
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**Randall Howard Wolford**  is a predator involved in the Murphy, Texas investigation of **To Catch a Predator**. He is best known for escaping charges in this investigation only to be arrested again for the same activity and given a lengthy sentence.

## Biography

Randall Howard Wolford was born in 1954. He worked as an oil drilling consultant, which was a well-paying position, and resided in Whitewright, Texas. Wolford was married and had a daughter, who was born in 1980. He lost a portion of his right index finger, but the specifics of how remain unknown.

On November 3rd, 2006, 52-year-old Wolford started an internet chat with a Perverted Justice decoy who was posing as a thirteen-year old-girl named "Sequoia." Despite the fact that his conversation log cannot be accessed online, it is known that he used the screen name "itnew2me." Wolford misrepresented his age by saying he was 46. He initially intended to take the girl out to lunch and to the movies. Wolford then declared he intended to visit the girl's home the following day and have sex with her. He claimed he enjoyed giving oral sex and experiencing the sensation orgasms.

## Confrontation

Just less than two hours after conversation, Wolford drove to the Murphy, Texas, sting house. His assumption was that the mother of the decoy was a technology executive away on business in Austin. With Lindsay Faye Wagner, the decoy posing as the teenage girl, Wolford chats casually while helping himself to a drink. He compliments the house and remarks on the pool table. When Wagner questioned him about having sex on a pool table, he answered that he had done it once and that it was the only thing he's good at on a pool table. Wolford is instructed to make himself at home by Chris Hansen, who enters the room. Chris and Wolford shake hands as they introduce each other. Wolford hesitantly started helping himself to some candy and when Chris inquired about his age, he said, "forty... nine." According to Wolford, he would have remained seated on the stool until the girl's mother returned. He claimed he would have discussed the chat log and given an explanation of his presence at the house. Chris rejects his claims and points to Wolford's obscene chatlog as evidence. Wolford then acknowledged having a 26-year-old daughter and said that if she were a minor, he wouldn't be comfortable with an adult man seeing her.

When Chris reads, "I would love to taste you Sequoia," and "Show you how good it feels to have a man down on you," Wolford confessed that he wrote those quotes. But he insisted that he would have waited for the girl's mother. Chris again challenges Wolford's claims by pointing out that the conversation he had after entering the sting house was different from the one he had earlier.  Wolford said he told her because she inquired about it. Chris questioned what would be the next step, to which Wolford replied that he would have talked her. Wolford then brought up Christianity when Chris wasn't believing his arguments. In his words, "God is [his] savior," and he insists that he was telling the truth. Chris subsequently questions whether his faith compels him to visit children who are home alone. Wolford stated he "screwed up big time." Wolford picks up his drink and leaves when Chris discloses who he is and the cameras come out. Wolford is arrested by police and taken into custody.

## Arrest and aftermath

Wolford and his truck are searched by Murphy Police. They found a condom in his pocket. When they searched his truck, they found fourteen firearms with hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a digital camera that had photographs of him in naked. After being taken in for questioning, Wolford asserted he would have waited for the girl's mother even. Eventually, he admitted everything. He said as he was going to the sting house, he allegedly kept reminding himself that it wasn't right, and he labeled himself "stupid." Coming to meet a child for sex, in his words, was "pretty low." When the investigator enquired about his intentions, Wolford declared that he would have sex with the girl. He stated, "I am guilty and I have to accept my punishment" and that he had no idea what had made him do such a stupid thing.

Following his arrest, Wolford was taken before Judge Kathy Hayden, who set his bail at $50,000. He was charged with online solicitation of a minor, a felony carrying a two- to twenty-year prison sentence. In June 2007, Wolford's charges would later be dropped along with all the other predators that came to the house after the suicide of assistant district attorney Louis Conradt and the controversies surrounding the Murphy sting. Wolford's wife was informed of his actions. She started the process of divorcing right away, and on March 2, 2007, it was finally finalized. He left his Whitewright residence and moved into a new one in Midlothian, Texas, as he was now living alone.

## Second arrest

In March 2008, A Samson Park police officer was contacted by Wolford after entering a Yahoo! chat room under the disguise of a thirteen-year-old girl named "Jennifer." Wolford used the screen name of lighmanntx@yahoo.com. When the officer reassured Wolford that they had previously communicated online with other individuals and had acquired sexually explicit images from these men, Wolford resumed their instant message conversation. The undercover officer categorically denied being a member of the police or employed by Perverted Justice when asked by Wolford. In less than two hours of online communication, the topic became sexual, and Wolford demanded that the undercover cop disclose specifics of an earlier meeting with another man. Wolford kept describing to the undercover in explicit sexual terms what he planned to do with her.

More online conversations followed, and during one of them, Wolford offered to provide a webcam to the undercover cop because he would love seeing her on camera and wouldn't meet anyone he hadn't already seen on a webcam. He later transmits a webcam video of himself having an orgasm during the same chat. Wolford proposes that they set up a meeting and that she could miss one day of school while her mother is at work, but that they would first have to speak on the phone. Wolford wanted to confirm the child's age. Wolford continued to try to convince, induce, or urge the thirteen-year-old to have sex with him in subsequent conversations with the undercover cop. On April 14, 2008,  Wolford gave her his phone number so that she could call him. A nineteen-year-old Samson Park Police Department employee called Wolford on April 15, 2008, while pretending to be the thirteen-year-old girl. Wolford had a perplexing phone call as a result of his refusal to discuss any explicit sexual matters.

On April 23, 2008, Wolford got in touch with the undercover cop to arrange a meeting at a Fort Worth McDonald's. Wolford promised to have a beverage ready for her in his car. They scheduled a second meeting for April 30 at the same McDonald's after he failed to appear. The same nineteen-year-old Samson Park Police Department officer who called Wolford that day was dropped off 30 minutes before the intended meetup a block from the restaurant. She was dressed as the undercover cop had stated she would be wearing. Wolford pulled up to her as she entered the McDonald's, stopped, and said, "Hey, Jen... over here, get in." The undercover female police officer subsequently announced that she had to visit the restroom and would be returning shortly. Then Wolford fled the area and was taken into custody.

### Sentencing

In September 2008, Wolford was charged in a federal complaint; the following month, a grand jury in Fort Worth indicted him. He was charged with one count of attempting to persuade, induce, entice, or coerce a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity. He pled not guilty. The lone witness supporting Wolford at the trial said that Wolford had previously engaged in a sort of roleplaying in which he considered Jennifer to be an adult pretending to be a child. A jury found Wolford guilty of the felony offense after a one-day trial before United States District Judge John A. McBryde. He was scheduled to be sentenced on April 17, 2009. Judge John McBryde sentenced Wolford to 292 months in prison and lifetime registration as a sex offender.

### Appeal

In July 2010, Wolford contested both his verdict and punishment. The district court, according to Wolford, erred in the jury instructions, the testimonial evidence admitting without cross-examination, the evidence admission that was overly prejudicial, the calculation of his guideline sentencing range, and the imposition of a substantively inappropriate sentence. Wolford contended that the district court miscalculated by neglecting to tell the jury that his speech was protected by the First Amendment if he believed he was conversing with an adult over the Internet. When it was brought up about being caught in a Dateline sting, Wolford contended that the inclusion of some of the interview transcript violated his rights under the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment because Chris was not a live trial witness. Wolford claimed that the district court made errors by allowing transcripts of online chats with unknown individuals that were discovered on his computer, as well as pornographic images of children, a list of pornographic websites that were bookmarked on his computer, and still pictures taken from pornographic videos that he sent to Jen.

According to Wolford, the chat logs and child pornographic images constitute inadmissible testimony about his past behavior and are solely relevant to his character. The conversation log, according to the court, featured remarks from Wolford in which he claimed to have previously raped a minor and expressed interest in having sex with them. Those comments raised questions about Wolford's claim that he thought he was role-playing game with an adult. Furthermore, his "role-playing" defense gave the chat transcripts strong probative value. The district court also found that Wolford's motivation and intent were strongly supported by the pornographic photos. They were employed to disprove Wolford's assertion that he didn't really think the people he spoke to were minors and to demonstrate that he had the motivation and intent to coerce a child into doing unlawful lewd acts.

Wolford contended that it was improper for the district court to allow his bookmark list and still pictures of a young girl and him engaging in sexual activity that he directed Jen to as evidence. Additionally, he pointed Jen to some of his bookmarked "favorites" websites. He claimed that this evidence unfairly prejudiced him. However, because the evidence was crucial to the offense being charged — persuading a minor to engage in unlawful sexual behavior - it was crucial to the government's strategy for the case as a whole. Wolford further argued that the district court miscalculated in determining that his lack of a plea bargain qualified him for an upward departure for possessing child pornography even though he was not charged with having it. Wolford then alleged that there was insufficient evidence to support the district court's factual conclusions, hence the court miscalculated in applying an upward departure for under-represented criminal history.

By a preponderance of the evidence, the district court determined that Wolford had raped two adult women and had previously acknowledged to trying to seduce a minor during the Dateline NBC sting. Numerous trustworthy sources, such as police reports, victim testimonies, emails received by the defendant, and the Dateline transcript, provided strong support for these conclusions. Wolford went on to argue that his 292-month sentence is harsh and substantially irrational. The district court made mention of Wolford's earlier criminal behavior, including the rapes and the admitted charge of attempting to entice a minor, at the sentencing hearing and emphasized that those offenses did not lead to criminal convictions. They said that Wolford's criminal history category significantly understates the seriousness of his past offenses and the potential for Wolford to conduct additional sex-related crimes in the future. At sentencing, the district court found that an upward departure would further the goals and was appropriate given the circumstances. For the reasons mentioned above, Wolford's conviction and imprisonment were upheld.

### Aftermath

Because federal inmates must complete at least 85% of their sentences before being freed, Wolford won't be eligible for parole until December 22nd, 2029, when he is 75-years-old.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 https://dairystatedegenerates.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-fingerless-oil-drilling-predator.html
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/txn/PressRel08/wolford\_PSC\_convict\_pr.html
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 https://casetext.com/case/us-v-wolford-8
4. ↑ https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/txn/PressRel09/wolford\_PSC\_sen\_pr.html
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