A 26-year-old College Station man, Austin Mixon, was sentenced on July 24 to 120 months in federal prison for soliciting sex from a minor. U.S. District Judge Alfred H. Bennett also ordered Mixon to pay $5,000 in restitution to the Justice for Victims of Trafficking fund and imposed a 10-year supervised release following his prison term.
Mixon pleaded guilty on Feb. 26 after admitting he used Instagram to communicate with a 13-year-old minor and persuaded her to meet him for sex in exchange for vape products. The two continued electronic communication and arranged their meeting at a park near the girl’s apartment because her mother did not allow her out at night.
Following his release, Mixon will be required to comply with restrictions designed to limit his access to children and the internet, and he will be ordered to register as a sex offender. He will remain in custody pending transfer to a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility.
The investigation was conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations along with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hileman prosecuted the case as part of Project Safe Childhood, an initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 aimed at combating child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Project Safe Childhood is led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices—including the Southern District of Texas—and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, which coordinate federal, state, and local resources against child exploitation crimes, according to the official website. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas has offices across Houston, Galveston, Corpus Christi, Laredo, McAllen, and Brownsville; employs more than 200 attorneys; covers over nine million residents across 43 counties; focuses on prosecuting federal crimes; handles civil cases; serves under the Attorney General as part of the Department of Justice; and has had leaders such as Alamdar Hamdani between 2022-2025, according to the official history page.