LAKE HAVASU CITY – A Lake Havasu City man convicted of sexually explicit communications and exchanges with a 12-year-old California girl is being sent to the Arizona Department of Corrections for five years. During Thursday’s sentencing hearing at the Mohave County courthouse Judge Doug Camacho also ordered that Christian Charvarin, 22, will serve ten years’ probation following his release from prison.
Charvarin was convicted through a plea agreement of sexual exploitation of a minor and aggravated luring of a minor for sexual exploitation. Deputy Mohave County attorney Karolina Czaplinska said the investigation began when a California woman discovered her daughter in the process of making a sexually explicit video, triggering involvement by the Los Angeles County sheriff’s office and the Lake Havasu city police department.
Czaplinska said Charvarin was 20-years-old when he met the 12-year-old victim through social media in 2018.
“He was communicating in a very sexually explicit way, requesting that the child send pictures of her and talking to the child about having sex with her and her sneaking out of her house,” Czaplinska told Judge Camacho. “The victim’s mom found her engaged in a sexually explicit cell phone recording activity at his request.”
Czaplinska said it is important that the case involved an actual victim, as opposed to more than 20 other local cases where men have been charged for allegedly seeking sex from a 13-year-old girl who was actually a male detective decoy.
Defense attorney Anthony Bustamante said Charvarin respects authority and will do well on probation after prison.
Dave Hawkins
