A Little Rock man who thought he was meeting a 15-year-old girl for a sexual encounter but instead met police has been sentenced to four years in prison.
Milton Jefferson also will have to register as a sex offender. He was arrested Dec. 14, about a week before his 51st birthday, at Park Plaza mall on Markham Street by Pulaski County sheriff's deputies on a charge of Internet stalking of a child. The Class C felony carries a 10-year maximum.
He pleaded guilty before Circuit Judge Chris Piazza in a plea agreement negotiated by deputy prosecutor Ashley Clancy and defense attorney Tim Boozer that requires Jefferson to serve a one-year suspended sentence once he's released from prison.
According to sentencing papers filed Tuesday, Jefferson, who's been jailed since his arrest, had with him two boxes of condoms and two cans of Axe body spray that he'd purchased about an hour before arriving at the mall.
Deputies were waiting for him after being alerted by investigators from the Dallas County sheriff's office, who reported that Jefferson made contact with a Facebook account secretly operated by the investigators.
Jefferson thought he was arranging a sexual rendezvous with a 15-year-old girl through Facebook. He told the supposed child he wanted to have sex with her but did not have a way to meet her in Fordyce, so he asked her to meet him at the Little Rock mall.
According to an arrest report, he was taken into custody in the food court about five minutes after arriving at the mall. Jefferson cooperated with deputies, allowing them to search his moped, his home and his cellphone, as well as submitting to an interview.
Metro on 04/18/2019