United States v. Zupnik

In August 2016, Joel Zupnik (defendant) posted a personal advertisement on Craigslist stating that he was looking for a woman to have sex with. Law-enforcement officers posing as a 15-year-old named Kelli responded to Zupnik’s advertisement. Zupnik exchanged messages of a sexual nature with the officers and agreed to meet Kelli at a local high school. When Zupnik arrived, he was arrested. Zupnik was charged by the United States government (plaintiff) with the attempted enticement of a minor in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b). At trial, the officers who had posed as Kelli testified, stating that Zupnik had exchanged sexual messages with them and had agreed to meet in person, believing that Kelli was a minor. At trial, the district court gave a jury instruction on entrapment, an affirmative defense on which Zupnik could succeed if he convinced the jury that the government made the initial contact and influenced his behavior to the point of provoking him to commit the attempted enticement. The jury instruction also explained that the government could rebut the entrapment defense if it proved that Zupnik was predisposed to commit the enticement. Zupnik filed a motion for judgment of acquittal, arguing that there was insufficient evidence to support a conviction for attempted enticement and that he had been entrapped. The jury found Zupnik guilty of attempted enticement. Zupnik appealed.