GI found guilty of try to get 'girl' to have sex

By Linda Satter

Life changed dramatically Wednesday for a 26-year-old Alma man who went from being a decorated veteran of the war in Iraq to a convicted sexual predator facing at least 10 years in a federal prison.

Todd Wesley Myers is an Army enlisted man stationed at Fort Chaffee who, while home on leave in October 2006, entered an Internet chat room where he tried to entice a fictitious 14-year-old girl in another part of the state to have sex with him.

A federal jury in Little Rock convicted Myers of the enticement charge, which carries a minimum 10-year sentence, and another charge of attempting to transfer obscene material - a videotape of himself masturbating - to the girl.

The "girl," named Stephanie, was a masquerade put on by Shannon Hills Police Chief Richard Friend.

Myers' introduction to the girl through e-mail began on Oct. 5, 2006, after he had returned home from a stint in Germany to recover from a back injury and deal with his pending divorce and bankruptcy.

For more information see today's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

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