BEMIDJI -- A federal grand jury has indicted on two charges a 27-year-old Madison, Wis., man who allegedly drove here to have sex with minors.
Gabriel Vitali Matthias has been charged with one count of traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct and one count of coercion and enticement.
The indictment alleges that Matthias, formerly known as Benjamin Wayne Gill, traveled Feb. 16 for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with two girls younger than the age of 16.
It also alleges that he coerced one of the girls into engaging in sexual activity on April 23.
One of the girls told authorities that they had met Matthias online in 2008 and eventually began communicating with him over the telephone and by text messaging, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice, citing the Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit.
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In early 2009, Matthias allegedly told the girls he was moving from California to Wisconsin and asked to meet them in Minnesota.
He eventually did meet up with them, provide them alcohol and engage in sexual activity with the minors, according to the indictment.
He was arrested May 1 in Madison and extradited to Minnesota.
If convicted of the charges, the maximum penalty is life in prison on the coercion count and 30 years on the interstate travel count.
Matthias was sentenced in August in Beltrami County District Court for felony soliciting a child to engage in a sexual act and felony third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a victim 12 to 15 years of age.
