PROVIDENCE – A Rhode Island man who admitted in federal court earlier this year to sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl in 2021 and then attempting to hire someone to kill her has now pleaded guilty to charges in state court, where a judge sentenced him Thursday to serve 35 years in prison.
In Providence County Superior Court, Chandler John Cardente, 30, of Cranston, R.I., retracted his plea of not guilty, according to court records.
Judge David Cruise sentenced Cardente, who was charged with six counts of first-degree child molestation, to 60 years with 35 to serve at the Adult Correctional Institutions and 60 years of probation, prosecutors said.
As part of his plea agreement, two other charges – enticement of a person under the age of 16 and contributing to delinquency of a child under 16 – were dismissed, court filings show.
Cardente was ordered to have no contact with the girl, to register as a sex offender, to attend sex offender counseling, and to be subject to community supervision, officials said.
“This defendant deserves every bit of the lengthy sentence he received for his terrible crimes,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said in a statement. “While nothing can undo the pain caused, the young victim in this case demonstrated incredible courage by telling her story in her exceptional victim impact statement. She is an inspiration for victims everywhere.”
An attorney listed for Cardente did not immediately return a request for comment on Friday morning.
Cardente previously pleaded guilty in US District Court in Providence in March, after he signed a plea agreement in October last year. The deal stipulated Cardente would serve 35 years in federal prison – he faces a minimum sentence of 20 years – if the terms are accepted by a judge.
A sentencing hearing in that case is set for June 5, records show. According to the plea agreement, federal prosecutors will not object to Cardente serving his sentence from federal court concurrently with the sentence he received in state court.
Federal prosecutors said Cardente, who had already been convicted for child molestation in 2014, first messaged the girl in December 2021 through the social media app, Snapchat.
The two arranged to meet alongside a wooded area next to the middle school in Burrillville, R.I., according to Police Chief Stephen Lynch. Court records say Cardente picked up the girl there in his vehicle on Dec. 10, 2021.
In signing the federal plea agreement, Cardente acknowledged he drove the girl to several places in Warwick and sexually assaulted her several times that day.
After the girl was reported missing by her family, she was found by police on the side of Jefferson Boulevard late that night after Cardente learned authorities were looking for the two of them and left her there, according to Lynch.
Cardente told police the two were Snapchat “friends” that summer, according to the plea agreement, which includes facts of the case agreed on by Cardente and prosecutors.
He told the girl he was 17 years old – despite being 27 at the time – and he was well aware she was only 12, authorities said.
Then in February 2022, while he was incarcerated at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston, he asked a person over the phone to kill the girl in exchange for $200 cash and $1,500 worth of tattoo equipment, according to the plea agreement.
“I need her to end up dead, she’s a witness, she needs to go,” Cardente said during the call.
He also provided the girl’s home address, according to the agreement.
“It ain’t gonna bother me. I’m gonna go to sleep at night, so I’m gonna be fine with it,” he said, according to the agreement.
“I just need it done …. I just need it done before I get indicted,” Cardente added.
Unbeknownst to him, Cardente was actually speaking to an undercover law enforcement officer.
A federal grand jury returned an indictment against him months later in September 2022.
He was indicted in state court in August 2023.
Material from a previous Globe story was used in this report.
