TEXARKANA, Texas -- A registered sex offender was arrested last week on accusations of soliciting sex online from a 13-year-old girl in middle school.
Jamar "Jay Polo" Antonio Ellis, 28, is required to register as a sex offender because of multiple previous convictions for sex offenses involving children in several Arkansas counties. Texarkana, Texas, police arrested Ellis on the current charge.
Detective Cliff Harris began an investigation Nov. 2 into a report of the girl receiving solicitous messages from a man on the SnapChat application who identified himself as "Jay Polo," according to a probable-cause affidavit. Messages sent to the girl Oct. 20 were preserved by an adult family member of the child and provided to police.
The girl reported she installed the SnapChat app on her phone at the request of a school friend, and that soon afterward she began receiving messages asking her for sex, the affidavit said. The 13-year-old girl told the man messaging her she was 15 when he commented on how young she looked, according to the affidavit.
Using the girl's SnapChat user name and password, Harris sent "Jay Polo" a message in mid-November. "Jay Polo" responded to the message and included a photo of his genitals, according to the affidavit. When asked to send a full body shot of himself that included his face, "Jay Polo" did as asked, the affidavit said.
With the help of fellow officers and a copy of Ellis' driver's license photo, "Jay Polo" was identified as Ellis. He was arrested Nov. 24 and was held Tuesday in the Bowie County jail with bail set at $50,000.
In 2013, when Ellis was approximately 21, he was arrested for sexual indecency with a child younger than 15 in Hempstead County, Arkansas.
He was sentenced to six years' probation in January 2014 but his probation was revoked and Ellis was sentenced to 72 months in prison in June 2015. The probation revocation stemmed from an arrest in April 2015 for sexual assault fourth-degree involving a minor in Howard County, Arkansas.
Ellis was sentenced to 36 months in prison in Lafayette County, Arkansas, for failure to register as a sex offender. Ellis was on parole when he failed to report on the night of Halloween 2019 for a sex offender lock-in, according to court records. When parole officials made contact with him, they found conversations on social media apps on Ellis' phone between him and teen girls, according to court records.
Ellis pleaded guilty in January in Lafayette County to violating sex offender registration and reporting requirements. He was sentenced to 60 months in prison. Arkansas parole records show Ellis was approved for parole following a hearing Aug. 31 with a parole eligibility date of Oct. 8.
Less than two weeks later, Ellis was sending sexually oriented messages to the 13-year-old girl in Texarkana, according to the affidavit.
Online solicitation of a minor is punishable by two to 10 years in prison under Texas law. Ellis could face an enhanced punishment range because of prior felony convictions.