Two child predators get long federal prison terms in separate FBI sting cases while a third is headed there after admitting guilt 

It’s been a bad few days for local pedophiles caught in FBI stings. 

Two of them went to federal prison on Tuesday for trying to have sex with children, and a third admitted on Monday that he did the same. 

They all followed the same pattern: They made contact with children online, groomed them for sex over time, showed up for a tryst and found the FBI waiting. 

First up on Tuesday was Thomas Kastory, 32, of Emsworth. 

U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan gave him a decade behind bars. 

Kastory had pleaded guilty to attempted coercion of a minor. Agents arrested him last May when he got off a bus near Heinz Field hoping to have sex with a 14-year-old he’d been chatting up on line. 

There was no girl. Kastory, who called himself “$mokeALot,” was talking to an agent. While most online predators work slowly to entice a child, Kastory took a less subtle approach. He immediately sent a video of a man touching his erection and then sent images of his face and genitals. He kept sending penis pictures throughout May and then suggested sex in a JC Penney dressing room at Ross Park Mall.

That plan fell through so he switched to having sex at her house. He said he’d meet her near Heinz Field and then they could go to her place. He said he’d bring condoms and a sex toy. 

The FBI watched him get on a bus at Route 65 and Camp Horne Road and get off at the North Shore. They arrested him near the stadium. He was carrying condoms, lubricant and a vibrator. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Risacher said Kastory deserves 10 years in prison in part to serve as a warning to other predators. 

“Deterring the sexual exploitation of minors must be given significant weight at sentencing,” he said. “Children are the most defenseless members of our society, and attempting to exploit a child’s innocence by seeking to entice a child to have sex is an egregious crime.”

At the same time Ranjan was sentencing Kastory, another judge in the same building, Christy Wiegand, was sentencing a Ross man in a similar case. 

She gave Vikash Mishra, a 41-year-old software engineer from India, 7½ years in prison. 

He had arranged for sex with a 12-year-old, not realizing he was talking to the FBI. They arrested him in a Shaler park a year ago, and he pleaded guilty to attempted receipt of child porn, a charge related to asking the undercover agent for vagina pictures. 

Mishra and his lawyers asked for the lower end of an 87- to 97-month range, saying he never intended to have sexual intercourse with the girl. He was down for oral sex, sure, but not intercourse. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Schupansky said that’s a lie because Mishra told the girl he would buy condoms so she didn’t get pregnant. But regardless of what kind of sex it was, he said, Mishra deserves an increased sentence in the high end of the range. 

The case started in September 2021 when agents set up their profile of a 12-year-old girl. Mishra took the bait in October and initiated sex chats on social media, calling himself “Vik.” He said he was 30, lived near Ross Park Mall and enjoyed driving around North Park in his Toyota RAV4. In February 2022, he finally arranged for a meeting, saying he’d drive to her father’s house in Shaler to get her. 

Agents were waiting for him when he showed up. 

Yet another predator, Thomas Hunt, 31, of the South Side, admitted his guilt on Monday in a case just like the others.

He pleaded guilty to attempted receipt of child porn in relation to online chats he had with an undercover agent posing as a 13-year-old girl. 

Agents arrested him last year when he showed up at Station Square, where he worked at Joe’s Crab Shack, for sex at her purported Downtown apartment. 

The case started in September 2021, when Hunt made contact on social media with the supposed 13-year-old. As is typical in such cases, he chatted with her and over the weeks began making sexual comments in an effort to groom her. 

She said she lived Downtown. Hunt said they could meet behind Joe’s, smoke some pot and then walk to her residence for sex. Her dad lived with her but she said he was out of town.

On Oct. 11, 2021, he texted “meet behind Joe’s and we go to your dad’s?”

He also said he’d been called in to work early that day. Agents went over to Station Square and set up surveillance at Joe’s. They saw him sitting on a bench, smoking a cigarette and texting. Just before they spotted him, he had sent the message about having to come in early to work.

The next day, he texted again and said he was sexually aroused. The agent replied that she was in class and asked, “Can u wait.” 

He couldn’t. He asked her to send a picture of her vagina. The agent said she could not because she was in school. He didn’t like that answer and said, “Come on girl. Go to the bathroom and get me a pic.” 

That pestering is the basis of the count of attempted receipt of child porn. 

The next day he tried again, saying he was so excited he couldn’t sleep. Later that morning, they arranged for her to walk to Joe’s for the hook-up. 

The agent told him she was walking across the Smithfield Street Bridge. Hunt was off that day but went to Station Square and was waiting there for her. 

So was the FBI.