Federal jury convicts Columbia man of enticing a minor for illicit sex
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
A federal jury convicted a Columbia man Wednesday for attempting to entice a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity.
According to a release, Darren Wade Lasley, 32, responded by email to an online classified advertisement on Craigslist that was placed as part of an undercover operation by a detective in the Boone County Sheriff’s Department Cyber Crimes Task Force in June 2017.
Over the next several days, Lasley emailed his plans for a sexual encounter with the 14-year-old decoy. Lasley proposed visiting the decoy's residence while the mother was at work or out of town.
A week later, Lasley asked in an email if the decoy could sneak out of her house to meet him for a sexual rendezvous. Lasley was arrested when he arrived at the arranged location.
The federal jury deliberated for about an hour before returning the guilty verdict to U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes, ending the two-day-old trial.
Lasley is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of life in federal prison without parole. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.
