To Catch a Predator · Petaluma investigation
Yancy Wallace
Yancy Wallace was prosecuted by court-martial after the Petaluma sting. The military proceedings resulted in 55 months of confinement and a dishonorable discharge.
Photo: To Catch a Predator Wiki
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Evidence
- Attributed reporting
- Jurisdiction
- Sonoma County, California
- Encounter
- Not established
- Decoy posed as
- Girl4
- Case number
- Not established
Personal details
- Born
- March 18, 1981
- Occupation
- Military service member · Technician
- Marital status
- Divorced
- Height
- 5′11″
- Weight
- 180 lb
- Hair
- Black
- Eyes
- Brown
Charges & sentence
Sentence
Court-martial sentence of 55 months of confinement, rank reduction to Private, dishonorable discharge, and lifetime registration; the proceedings covered the attempted minor offense and additional image offenses.
Attributed to the sources below. Consult the original record for full terms.
Case records
Hansen investigationSentenced
Sentence
Court-martial sentence of 55 months of confinement, rank reduction to Private, dishonorable discharge, and lifetime registration; the proceedings covered the attempted minor offense and additional image offenses.6
- Other condition: Term not establishedCourt-martial sentence of 55 months of confinement, rank reduction to Private, dishonorable discharge, and lifetime registration; the proceedings covered the attempted minor offense and additional image offenses.6
Reviewed sting-related legal outcome. Aggregate court-martial outcome includes both sting-related attempt and additional image offenses; no count-level allocation established,so no standalone55-month sting component.86-year maximum excluded. Linked news page inaccessible. Individual final charge dispositions and statute articles are not reconstructed from broad registry-style labels. Additional images were addressed within the described military proceeding, not invented as a separate docket.
Case narrative
Biography
At the time of the sting, Yancy was twenty-five years old, and serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. He had served in Iraq and reached the rank of Sergeant. He was recently married and had a kid. Air Force.
Sting
Yancy arrives at the house looking as happy and relaxed as possible as the decoy invites him into the backyard. She invites him to go in the hot tub with her as she returns to get changed. Wallace tries to follow when he runs face to face with Chris Hansen , who leads him back to the bar for a seat. Hansen takes issue with him serving his country but letting himself fall into this situation, knowing stings to bust child predators are going on. The only thing Yancy can say in his defense is that he thought it was all a game online, which doesn't explain why he showed up. He also hopes to take it as a lesson learned and be sent on his way, but he knows that won't happen. Chris then reveals what Yancy already knows: That he has entered a Dateline investigation. Yancy incorrectly believes he will be arrested on the spot as he stands up and puts his hands behind his back, but finds out he jumped the gun a little as he is charged in the garage as he makes his way out. While being questioned by police, he says he didn't think sex with a thirteen-year-old would happen, but he knows his life up until now is destroyed, and this will hang over him for the rest of his days.
Aftermath
As Yancy was serving in the Marine Corps at the time of the sting, he was handed over to the Marine Corps and prosecuted by the military legal system. Thus, he was charged federally, and his case went through military court-martial. He was charged with two federal counts of WRONGFUL RECEIVE POSSESSION DISTRIB CHILD PORN and ATTEMPT TO COMMIT OFFENSE WITH A MINOR
Yancy faced a maximum sentence of eighty-six years in prison. He was reduced in rank to Private, received fifty-five months imprisonment, a dishonorable discharge, and lifetime sex offender registration upon release.
Community-written, from the To Catch a Predator Wiki. Not independently verified, and it does not establish charges or court outcomes.
Yancy Wallace, To Catch a Predator Wiki contributors; see revision and history links. · CC-BY-SA
Media
Sources
- 1Yancy Wallace on MegaphonePublic episode metadata matches the publisher RSS recording by title, release date and exact enclosure identifier. Reviewed publisher title/description names this profile as the subject of the recording.
- 2Yancy Wallace on SpotifyPublic episode metadata matches the publisher RSS recording by title, release date and exact enclosure identifier. Reviewed publisher title/description names this profile as the subject of the recording.
- 3Yancy Wallace on Apple PodcastsPublic episode metadata matches the publisher RSS recording by title, release date and exact enclosure identifier. Reviewed publisher title/description names this profile as the subject of the recording.
- 4Yancy Wallace (community wiki)Attributed community article. Revision date describes the article update, not a court or sting event. Full infobox, narrative sections, references and assets are retained in the private archive.
- 5Yancy Wallace: occupation informationThe profile infobox lists these occupations. Undated roles do not establish current employment.
- 6Yancy Wallace: legal outcome (revision 14056)Court-martial sentence of 55 months of confinement, rank reduction to Private, dishonorable discharge, and lifetime registration; the proceedings covered the attempted minor offense and additional image offenses.
- 7Yancy Wallace: archived criminal-history narrativeAftermath describes a military prosecution covering an attempted minor offense and wrongful receipt/possession/distribution of child material, with an aggregate fifty-five-month court-martial outcome. It does not allocate that sentence by count.