Chander J. Cardente Guilty Plea

Registered Sex Offender Admits to Enticing a Minor, Launching a Murder-for-Hire Plot to Silence the Victim

PROVIDENCE –  A 30-year-old Rhode Island man who was previously convicted in RI state court for child molestation and required to register as a sex offender, admitted to a federal judge today that, in a separate matter, he enticed a 12-year-old girl to engage in multiple sexual encounters and later launched a murder-for-hire plot in a scheme to eliminate her as a witness, announced Acting United States Attorney Sara Miron Bloom.

Chander J. Cardente pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court today to enticement of a minor, commission of a felony while being required to register as a sex offender, and interstate murder for hire. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 23, 2025. The sentence imposed will be determined by a federal district judge after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Court documents reflect that in the summer of 2021, Cardente, while posing as a 17-year-old, began communicating with the minor victim via a messaging app, and told the victim that he was interested in having sexual contact with her. In December 2021, he met the girl a short distance from her middle school, drove her to various locations in Rhode Island, and engaged in sexual contact with her multiple times. Cardente was subsequently arrested and detained in state custody.

While being held at the Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI), Cardente communicated by telephone with another person, expressing his intent that the victim be murdered. In a conversation with a law enforcement officer acting in an undercover capacity, Cardente told the officer that the victim needed “to end up dead” because she was “a witness.”  He offered the undercover officer $200 in cash and equipment worth $1,500.

The case in U.S. District Court is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Milind M. Shah.

The matter was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations; the Warwick, Cranston, and Burrillville Police Departments; Rhode Island State Police; and the Rhode Island Department of Corrections Special Investigations Unit.

Cardente, facing both federal and state prosecution in this matter, is currently being held without bail at the ACI.  Acting United States Attorney Sara Miron Bloom acknowledges and thanks the Rhode Island Department of Attorney General for their assistance in advancing federal charges brought in this matter.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc