PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A convicted sex offender has admitted 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 Thursday.
Chander J. Cardente, 30, pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday 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.
Cardente is scheduled to be sentenced on April 23. He is being held without bail.
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.
Homeland Security Investigations; police departments in Warwick, Cranston, and Burrillville; Rhode Island State Police; and the Rhode Island Department of Corrections Special Investigations Unit investigated the case.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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