Man pleads guilty to failure to register as a sex offender

A former Hattiesburg resident faces up to 10 years in federal prison after failing to register as a sex offender, officials said.

Thomas Lamon Williams, 23, pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday to one count of failure to register as a sex offender.

Williams, whose original underlying sex offense conviction is statutory rape in Grenada County, is required to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, enacted as part of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.

The U.S. Attorney's office says Williams traveled from Mississippi to Florida and knowingly failed to register and update his registration.

Williams will be sentenced on June 16, 2016, at 9:15 a.m., by U. S. District Judge Keith Starrett, and faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Marshals Service and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Jones.

Contact Therese Apel at tapel@gannett.com. Follow @TRex21 on Twitter.