KINGMAN – Two Kingman men nabbed in an undercover sting investigation targeting adult males preying upon minors made separate Nov. 11 court appearances involving their plea agreements. Judge Billy Sipe imposed a five-year prison term for Michael Shaw, 30.
Shaw pleaded guilty to attempted sexual conduct with a minor and luring a minor for sexual exploitation. He is one of more than a dozen men from Parker to Las Vegas who had social media contact that led to sexually explicit text message sexual communication with a Mohave County sheriff’s detective decoy who was posing as a 13-year-old girl.
Judge Sipe said Shaw should have ceased communications when the decoy detective indicated he was a teenage girl. He said Shaw instead clearly intended to have sex with a minor when he showed for a Jan. 28 meeting when he was intercepted and arrested by law enforcement.
Shaw will spend ten years on supervised probation once released from prison.
Shane McHone, 30, entered a separate plea deal convicting him of two counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, attempted aggravated luring of a minor for sexual exploitation and attempted sexual conduct with a minor. Prosecutor Cameron Patt said McHone shared a naked image and requested the same from the decoy detective before showing up at a north Kingman park to meet up with the fantasy teen to have sex in Aug., 2019.
McHone is eligible for probation but could also be sent to the Arizona Department of Corrections when sentenced Dec. 7 by Mohave County Superior Court Judge Rick Lambert.
Two men snared in the same undercover operation who took their cases to trial are triple decade prison terms. Many who resolved their cases through plea deals were given prison terms of five years or more.
Dave Hawkins
