ST. LOUIS – Last week, a St. Louis jury convicted a man for soliciting sex from an underage girl.
According to court documents, the incident unfolded on Christmas 2019, when the 10-year-old victim received her first cellphone as a gift. The girl set up an account on an online dating site and claimed to be 18.
Prosecutors said Raymond Gardner contacted the girl using the Kik messaging app. He sent intimate photos of himself and persuaded the girl to send nude pictures of herself.
Gardner asked the girl if she was underage, and she told him she was 12. Gardner then asked if she could sneak out of her house and meet to have sex with him.
The girl’s mother found Gardner’s profile on her daughter’s phone and demanded he stop contacting her. The mother reached out to the police, who reviewed the messages, videos, and photos and traced them back to Gardner.
Both the girl and her mother testified at trial.
Gardner, now 42, was found guilty of attempted enticement of a child. He’ll be sentenced on April 29.