PROVIDENCE – The man arrested after leaving a Burrillville Middle School girl on the side of the road in Warwick – and then trying to have her killed while in prison – was indicted on three counts Wednesday, Sept. 13 by a federal grand jury.
Chandler Cardente, 28-years old and a registered Level III sex offender, communicated with the 12-year-old via social media before picking her up at the Burrillville school last December. according to reports. Burrillville police identified Cardente while looking for the girl, saying he posed online as a 17-year-old.
Cardente was subsequently arrested and detained in state custody.
While being held at the Adult Correctional Institutions, Cardente made a phone call in which he offered someone $200 in cash and equipment worth $1,500 to murder the victim, according to the indictment this week. Cardente told the other person that the victim needed, “to end up dead,” because she was, “a witness,” the indictment states.
Cardente’s three counts include enticement of a minor; committing a felony offense involving a minor while being a registered sex offender; and interstate murder-for-hire.
A federal indictment is merely an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
According to release from the U.S. Department of Justice, enticement of a minor is punishable by a statutory penalty of up to life in federal prison, with a minimum mandatory term of incarceration of ten years; committing a felony offense involving a minor while being a registered sex offender is punishable by a consecutive term of ten years of incarceration to any sentence imposed for enticement of a minor; interstate murder-for-hire is punishable by a statutory penalty of up to ten years imprisonment. If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by a federal district judge after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The case in U.S. District Court is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Milind M. Shah and Assistant Attorney General Shannon Signore of the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office, the release notes.
The matter was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations; the Burrillville, Warwick, and Cranston Police Departments; Rhode Island State Police; and the Rhode Island Department of Corrections Special Investigations Unit.
