A former high school educator who was convicted of attempted sex trafficking for arranging to pay for an encounter with a 12-year-old girl at a hotel in Manchester, N.H., was sentenced Monday to more than 13 years in federal prison.
Stacey Ray Lancaster, now 47, had been overseeing the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps program at Manchester West High School when he went straight from work one afternoon in 2024 to the hotel, where he had agreed to pay $100 for 15 minutes with the child, according to court records.
Lancaster was among several men who responded to an online advertisement federal investigators posted as part of a sting operation that authorities said was designed to “ferret out” individuals on the prowl for sex-trafficked children.
Lancaster first responded to the ad at 7:21 a.m. on Nov. 14, 2024, initiating a back-and-forth conversation that continued into the afternoon, according to court records. He repeatedly asked undercover agents for reassurance that they weren’t with the police, then confirmed his intentions.
“I’ll be there at 3:15,” he wrote.
While in the hotel parking lot, Lancaster expressed nervousness about the transaction and sought further assurances that an undercover agent wasn’t working with law enforcement, according to an affidavit that prosecutors filed with the court. Then he confirmed he was ready to follow through with the planned encounter, and was arrested.
Lancaster was placed on administrative leave immediately, and the New Hampshire Department of Education suspended his credential eligibility within a week of his arrest.
Lancaster was convicted at the conclusion of a jury trial in May 2025 and detained pending sentencing.
Lancaster’s defense attorney, Charles J. Keefe, urged the court to impose a sentence of five years in prison followed by five years of supervised release, along with a $5,000 penalty. He argued the government had “enticed” his client to commit a crime that didn’t involve any actual children.
In the defense’s sentencing memorandum, Keefe wrote that a search of Lancaster’s phone and laptop “revealed that he had no demonstrated prior interest in underage girls” and that it was an agent who “pushed the conversation” at the hotel when Lancaster expressed reservations.
“Although the jury convicted him in this case, the evidence revealed someone appearing not to be fully committed to going through with the actual act,” Keefe wrote.
Lancaster’s wife and 10 other people, including fellow parishioners from a church in Lancaster, Mass., submitted letters of support ahead of his sentencing.
“The situation that led to his incarceration does not reflect who he truly is,” wrote his wife, Tamires Lancaster.
“Our family stands fully prepared to support him by providing a stable home, guidance, and encouragement as he moves forward,” she added.
The US attorney’s office in New Hampshire argued that a 15-year mandatory minimum sentence applies in this case. The prosecutors recommended that Lancaster be sentenced to nearly 20 years (235 months) in prison, followed by five years of supervised release.
In their sentencing memorandum, assistant US attorneys Matthew Vicinanzo and Anna Krasinski wrote that Lancaster’s plan was egregious, and the actions he took offer strong indications that he believed a real child was at the hotel awaiting his planned abuse.
“The conduct is all the more flagrant when considering that the defendant was employed as a teacher at Manchester West High School, that he worked with children every day, and that he was trained as a mandatory reporter of child abuse in his role as a teacher,” Vicinanzo and Krasinski wrote. “The defendant was in the process of negotiating to abuse a child that day while he was at work in a school building.”
Lancaster had testified that he intended to rescue the 12-year-old girl, but prosecutors said that testimony was inconsistent with his chat messages, his actions at the hotel, and his decision not to report the situation to law enforcement. The jury concluded his testimony was false, so a sentencing enhancement should apply, prosecutors said.
Judge Paul J. Barbadoro, at the federal court in Concord, N.H., ultimately imposed a sentence of 13.5 years (162 months) in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, according to a statement from prosecutors.
Prior to his job at Manchester West High School, Lancaster held a similar position at the John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science in Roxbury, Mass., according to court records. He served in the US Navy from 1999 until 2023, has a master’s degree, and had been enrolled in graduate coursework at Northeastern University when he was arrested.
Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter.