A South Boston man who used Facebook and text messages to solicit sex from what he believed was a 14-year-old Pittsylvania County girl will serve time in prison.
Jose Osmin Amaya-Mejia, 22, who is from Honduras, was sentenced to 15 years in prison last week in Pittsylvania County Circuit Court for attempted indecent liberties with a person between the ages of 13 and 15 and using an electronic device to propose sex to a person under the age of 15, said Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Haskins.
Circuit Court Judge Charles J. Strauss suspended 12 years of Amaya-Mejia’s sentence on Dec. 21, leaving him with three years to serve.
Haskins said the case began in May when a Blairs woman trying to track down the Amaya-Mejia’s brother had set up a false Facebook account pretending to be a 14-year-old girl to communicate with the defendant. His brother had fathered a child with her underage daughter, Haskins said.
Amaya-Mejia came on to the woman and sent pictures of himself in his underwear. She contacted the Pittsylvania County Sheriff’s Office, Haskins said. Investigators took up the case and a female sheriff’s office investigator was communicating with Amaya-Mejia.
He also sent her texts asking her to meet him and if she was a virgin, Haskins said. Amaya-Mejia told her in text messages he wanted to kiss her and touch her. He also assured her he had a condom to prevent her from getting pregnant and said he didn’t want her parents to know.
Amaya-Mejia and the “girl” — the female sheriff’s office investigator — agreed meet at a lumberyard in Ringgold on July 12.
“He showed up there with a smile on his face and a condom in his pocket and the deputies jumped him,” Haskins said.
“It was really a good bit of ad hoc police work,” he said.
Crane reports for the Danville Register & Bee.
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