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Internet predator sentenced

McMaster finishes sex offenders treatment program

McMaster

HOLLIDAYSBURG — An Altoona man accused of posing as a teenager to solicit nude photos from teenage girls will spend a minimum of 15 days in Blair County Prison, starting Monday, followed by 15 days on house arrest.

Judge Daniel J. Milliron handed down the sentence Thursday to Travis Michael McMaster, 34, who while out of jail on bail, enrolled in a treatment program for sex offenders offered by the Project Point of Light agency.

Melissa Hale, a licensed clinical social worker with Project Point of Light’s office in Ebensburg, told the judge that McMaster finished the program in August and remains active in post-program options.

“Serving any jail time would impede his treatment,” Hale said.

“Let me continue with my treatment,” McMaster said to Milliron before the sentence was imposed. “I want to prove that people can change.”

When McMaster was arrested in March 2017, the state Attorney General’s Office charged him with unlawful contact with a minor and criminal use of a communication facility, both third-degree felonies.

Those charges grew out of a eight-month investigation that started in 2016 when Facebook reported that a 14-year-old girl uploaded two photos of herself, deemed to be child pornography. She sent them to a user named Derick Colver, who had profile indicating that he was a teenager.

Facebook linked Derick Colver to McMaster and discovered a pattern of communications involving as many as 600 computer users who were believed to be female minors. Investigators said that McMaster, posing as Derick Colver, forwarded a picture of a shirtless teenage boy to the girls, then asked for them to send him their pictures in various stages of undress.

In December 2016, agents tracked down a 15-year-old Pennsylvania girl who said she chatted with Derick Colver on Facebook and exchanged photos with him. While the girl said she never met Colver, she told investigators that he sent her the photo of the shirtless teenage boy as well as a photo of a penis.

While Facebook records showed McMaster, posing as Colver, communicating with as many as 600 girls, the criminal charges filed against him were based on his contact with the 15-year-old girl.

Those charges were the ones with enough supporting evidence, state Deputy Attorney General David J. Drumheller said Thursday.

Drumheller asked Milliron to impose a standard range sentence of three to 12 months in prison for unlawful contact with a minor.

When imposing the sentence of one month to 23.5 months incarceration, followed by five years’ probation, the judge said he recognized McMaster’s acceptance of responsibility and his immersion in the Project Point of Light program.

Drumheller also asked Milliron on Thursday to consider further delay of McMaster’s sentence, which has been on hold. After pleading guilty to unlawful contact with a minor in October 2018, McMaster was evaluated by the state Sexual Offenders Assessment Board, which concluded that he met the criteria for classification as a sexually violent predator. Because that classification can only be bestowed by a judge, the state AG’s office asked Milliron to convene the required hearing, drawing an objection from defense attorneys Steve Passarello and Dan Kiss.

In a July ruling, Milliron sided with the defense attorneys and declined to convene the hearing, based on higher-level court rulings and pending appeals with the state’s highest court. In court Thursday, the judge reaffirmed his stance.

Hale, aware of the SOAB findings, advised Milliron: “(McMaster’s) risk level to reoffend is low.”

McMaster’s wife also advised the judge that her husband’s treatment at Project Point of Light has made a major difference in their lives.

Kristen McMaster said her world was “turned upside down” on the day of her husband’s arrest, initially leading to separation and later, to a better and stronger marriage.

“Without Project Point of Light, my husband and I wouldn’t be together,” Kristen McMaster said.

Milliron also recognized the Project Point of Light Program as beneficial and advised McMaster that he would need to look to that agency for guidance and to follow its recommendations while under supervision of the county’s parole and probation office.

McMaster’s conviction of a sex-related offense also requires him to regularly register his address and related information with state police. It’s a 25-year requirement, defense attorney Kiss said.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.

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