Fugitive Sex Offender Living Under Alias in Wilmington Sentenced to 52 Months for Failing to Register

 RALEIGH, N.C. – A man who was on the run for two years before being apprehended in New Hanover County was sentenced last Thursday to 52 months in prison for Failure to Register as a Sex Offender.

According to court documents, Henry Lewis Sisk, 48, was charged with one count of Failure to Register as a Sex Offender, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2250.  Sisk pled guilty on May 11, 2021. 

In 2008, Sisk was convicted of an offense involving sexual contact with a 5-year-old and his sentence included a lifetime registration requirement. After being released, Sisk moved to Michigan where he initially registered but by late 2017, Sisk had absconded and in January 2018, a warrant issued from Michigan for failure to register.  Investigators learned that Sisk traveled to South Carolina in early 2019, where he allegedly had sexual contact with a 4-year-old, according to an April 2019 warrant that remains pending. By June 2019, Sisk had relocated to Wilmington, NC and was living under the alias of Johnny Osborne. In January 2020, Sisk was stopped at a checkpoint in New Hanover County and identified himself as Johnny Osborne but was unable to produce a license and eventually was identified as Sisk by the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office through fingerprint analysis. Sisk did not, as required, register as a sex offender anywhere in North Carolina.

G. Norman Acker, III, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina made the announcement after sentencing by Senior U.S. District Judge W. Earl Britt. The U.S. Marshals Service, Eastern District of North Carolina, Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force, and New Hanover County Sherriff’s Office investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Bryan Stephany  prosecuted the case.

This case was part of the Project Safe Childhood initiative, a national program aimed at ensuring that criminals exploiting children are effectively prosecuted by making full use of all available law enforcement resources at every level.  For more information about this important national project, Project Safe Childhood, go to www.projectsafechildhood.gov.