No. 22-1248 ___________________________

United States of America,

lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiff - Appellee,

v.

Darren Wade Lasley,

lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellant. ____________

Appeal from United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri - Jefferson City ____________

Submitted: November 17, 2022 Filed: August 23, 2023 ____________ Before COLLOTON, SHEPHERD, and GRASZ, Circuit Judges. ____________ COLLOTON, Circuit Judge.

Darren Lasley was convicted by a jury of enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity. See 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b). The charge arose from Lasley’s response to an online advertisement and his dialogue with an undercover detective who posed as a fourteen-year-old girl. At trial, the district court1 declined Lasley’s request to instruct the jury on the affirmative defense of entrapment, and Lasley appeals that decision. We conclude that the evidence was insufficient to warrant the requested instruction, and therefore affirm the judgment.

I.

The investigation began when Andrew Evans, a detective in the Boone County Sheriff’s Office, posted an advertisement in the “Casual Encounters” section on the website Craigslist. Evans testified that the Casual Encounters section was primarily used for people to arrange sexual encounters.

Craigslist required users to click a link to confirm that they were at least eighteen years old before they posted an advertisement with Casual Encounters. Despite this purported age verification, Evans testified that “Craigslist Casual Encounters was notorious for online sexual predators . . . using [it] to try to talk to minors and other children and commit crimes.”

Detective Evans posted the advertisement on June 14, 2017, and entitled it “Home alone and bored - w4m [women for men].” The advertisement read, “Heyy guys out of school for the summer and soooo bored :( just lookiing for some cool boys to chat with...HMU [hit me up] if your not crazy lol [laugh out loud].”2

1 The Honorable Brian C. Wimes, United States District Judge for the Western District of Missouri. 2 We reproduce the text of the communications between Detective Evans and Lasley with original spelling and punctuation except where indicated.

-2- A number of users responded to the advertisement. Craigslist removed the post after twenty-four hours in response to reports from users that the person who posted the advertisement was a minor.

At 10:03 a.m. on June 14, Lasley responded to the advertisement. He asked Abigail if she was in college. She informed him that she was “getting ready to start high school finally :).” Lasley asked Abigail her age; Abigail responded that she was fourteen years old. Throughout the discussions, Detective Evans acted as “Abigail,” and we will refer to “Abigail” as the party making the communications.

After stating that she was fourteen years old, Abigail told Lasley “if thats 2 young for u thats ok I understand.” Lasley responded, “I didn’t necessarily say that lol but what you put up your ad for then?” Abigail replied she had posted the advertisement because she had “always kinda been attracted to older guys,” but did not “know any older guys besides my teachers.”

After a few more messages in the same conversation, the two exchanged photographs. Evans sent Lasley a low-quality photograph of a Boone County Sheriff’s Office employee who was twenty-four years old. Lasley replied “you look