47-year-old from Maui sentenced to 10 1/2 years for child enticement, drug trafficking

US Chief District Judge Derrick K. Watson on Tuesday sentenced Lyle Cummings, 47, of Maui, to 10 1/2 years of imprisonment and seven years of supervised release for attempted coercion and enticement of a child to engage in sexual activity and trafficking cocaine and crack.

Cummings was tried before a jury in June 2023, and found guilty on all counts. 

At trial, the United States presented evidence that in March 2020 Cummings communicated online for days with a person he believed to be a 13-year-old girl. During the online conversation, Cummings attempted to persuade, induce, entice or coerce the minor to engage in sexual activity with him.

According to law enforcement, Cummings used the online name Duckfat34 and contacted a person named “Kiana,” who claimed to be a 13-year old girl but really was an undercover officer.

The federal complaint included text messages that showed Cummings arranging to meet girl.

“What kinda fun u gonna do wit a 13 year old girl? I can’t go into bars,” read the text from “Kiana.”

According to court documents, Cummings replied with graphic sexual comments and sent photos of $100 bills, offering to be her “sugah daddy.”

The defendant drove his 2008 Toyota Tacoma truck to meet her at an agreed-upon location in Kīhei. In reality, the defendant had been communicating with an undercover officer.

When the defendant arrived at the meet-up location, he was arrested. The next day, police executed a search warrant on the truck and found 87 grams of cocaine packaged for sale in multiple small baggies, crack, drug paraphernalia and cash. 

“This trial revealed how predators like Cummings utilize social media to entice and exploit children, which is appropriately punishable by a mandatory sentence of 10 years incarceration,” U.S. Attorney Clare E. Connors said in a press release. “The fact Cummings possessed both cocaine and crack when he showed up to engage in sexual activity with a 13-year-old demonstrates the myriad dangers child victims face in these horrific situations.” 

Homeland  Security Investigationsʻ Honolulu Special Agent in Charge John F. Tobon said:  “Child exploitation is one of the most serious crimes HSI investigates due to the lasting psychological and physical damage it can inflict on victims.” 

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.

Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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 www.justice.gov/psc.