A Lake Havasu City man might be the only one in a group of nine defendants to avoid prison in an undercover sting operation targeting men preying upon underage women. Daniel Martin, 33, was placed on probation for 15 years Friday and ordered to spend one year in the Mohave County jail.
Martin will also be required to perform 200 hours of community work service when his jail sentence is completed. The award winning body builder pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of attempted luring a minor for sexual exploitation.
Martin and eight other men from Las Vegas, Lake Havasu, Bullhead City and Kingman were indicted for allegedly attempting to have sex with someone they believed to be a teenager who was actually a Mohave County Sheriff’s Office detective. Each of the defendants reportedly responded to a law enforcement planted social media post before switching to text message communication with someone they believed to be “Sabrina”, a 13-year-old girl.
Mohave County Superior Court Judge Derek Carlisle questioned the probation guaranteed posture of the plea deal because co-defendants are receiving prison terms. But he approved Martin’s agreement after Public Defender Robin Puchek explained that the Lake Havasu man is the least culpable of the group.
Puchek noted that Martin’s April 18 communications with the detective posing as a teenage girl occurred over a three hour period while one co-defendant exchanged more than 1,200 text messages with “Sabrina” over the course of several months. Puchek said Martin’s case is also differentiated by the fact that there was no attempt to meet with the posing detective where other defendants were intercepted when they thought they were going to hookup with the teen.
A Las Vegas resident is the only defendant to take his case to trial so far. 63-year-old Kevin Moninger is serving a 31-year prison sentence after a jury convicted him of attempted sexual conduct with a minor and three counts of luring a minor for sexual exploitation.
