Repeat sex offender pleads guilty to attempted kidnapping, sexually exploiting minor he met through online gaming

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A Texas man pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court here today to exploitation crimes related to traveling to Ohio to have sex with a minor he met online playing Call of Duty.

Harrison Michael Barton, 38, of North Detroit, Texas, was arrested in February 2025 at the John Glenn Columbus International Airport while attempting to fly to Florida with the victim. Barton's plea agreement includes a recommended sentence of 25 to 30 years in prison.

According to court documents, in February 2025, Barton took a Greyhound bus from Texas to Ohio to meet a 15-year-old approximately one month after connecting with the victim on the Call of Duty mobile game.

At the time, Barton was wanted on an outstanding parole warrant out of Texas stemming from a prior conviction for online solicitation of a minor, in which he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Barton admitted that, in this instant case, the teenager picked him up in Newcomerstown, Ohio. Prior to arriving at the airport, the defendant admitted to having vaginal and oral sex with the minor and to taking sexually explicit pictures of the victim.

Dominick S. Gerace II, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Jason Cromartie, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division; Coshocton County Sheriff Christopher Walters; Newark Police Chief Erik McKee; and John Glenn Columbus International Airport Police Chief Ronald Gray announced the guilty plea entered today before U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus, Jr. Assistant United States Attorneys Emily Czerniejewski and Jennifer M. Rausch are representing the United States in this case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and DOJ Criminal Division'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, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.

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