GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.—A Grand Junction man has been ordered to register as a sex offender and spend 10 years to life on probation after being found guilty in an Internet sex sting.
Mesa County District Court Judge Richard Gurley sentenced 26-year-old John L. Merritt on Monday, nearly three months after a jury convicted him of Internet luring of a child, Internet sexual exploitation of a child, enticement and promotion of obscenity to a minor.
Merritt was arrested in March 2007 after authorities said he sent pornography to an investigator posing as a 14-year-old girl and arranged a meeting. Merritt never showed up for the meeting, but Gurley said that did not mitigate Merritt’s actions online.
Merritt testified at trial that he thought he was chatting with a man living out a fantasy of being a young girl.
