Mark Garris

A Westmoreland County man was sentenced in Butler County Common Pleas Court to serve four to eight years in state prison for soliciting a fictitious 15-year-old girl who turned out to be an adult undercover agent for the state attorney general’s office.

Mark Garris, 47, of Derry, was sentenced Thursday by Judge Kelley Streib, who presided over Garris’ trial in March when a jury convicted him of three felony charges — unlawful contact with a minor, criminal use of a communication facility and attempt to commit involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a person under 16 years old.

Garris was given concurrent prison sentences of four to eight years for the unlawful contact and attempt to commit involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a person under 16 years old charges followed by a total of eight years of probation.

In addition, he was ordered to comply with the state parole board’s special conditions for sex offenders and register for life as a sexual offender under the Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act.

“This case serves as a reminder of the ways child predators use social media to gain access to victims. This defendant had every intention of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl,” Attorney General Michelle Henry said Thursday. “While today’s sentence ensures that this particular defendant will not prey on young people online anytime soon, I encourage parents to educate themselves on the dangers of children using the internet unsupervised and to have ongoing conversations with their kids.”

The investigation in 2021 revealed that Garris had sexual conversations and arranged to meet the “child” even after being told she was just 15 years old. At the time, Garris did not know he was actually chatting with special agent Duane Tabak.

Garris was arrested Nov. 4 after he drove to the prearranged meeting spot in the parking lot of a dental office in Cranberry Township.

During the two-day trial, Tabak testified that he created a profile of a 19-year-old woman on an adult dating app using the handle Princess JoJo in a proactive, undercover chat investigation and used that identity in texts he exchanged with Garris.

He said he couldn’t create a profile for a minor because the app displays the age of the person who created the profile. The photo he attached to the profile was that of a female special agent when she was 14 years old.

Tabak said the first text he received from Garris came on Oct. 22, and he responded several days later.

After exchanging a few texts, Tabak said he sent messages saying “JoJo” lied about her age and she was only 15 years old, but Garris kept communicating.

He said Garris eventually indicated that he wanted to engage in sex acts with the girl. Garris did not testify.

The jury of five women and seven men deliberated for a little more than an hour before rendering the verdict.