Man sentenced for contacting minor for sex
A Coraopolis man was sentenced Tuesday, Sept. 10, to serve time in prison and register as a sex offender after pleading guilty to contacting a minor female for sex last year.
Julio A. Torres Arriaga, 29, was sentenced to serve six to 36 months in state prison followed by 36 months of probation and was ordered to register as a sex offender for 25 years after he pleaded guilty to felony charges of unlawful contact with a minor and criminal use of a communication facility.
Cranberry Township police filed the charges July 9 after Arriaga traveled to the township to meet someone he believed was a 13-year-old girl he had been communicating with on social media since June, but he was met by FBI agents who had been posing as the girl.
Federal agents informed township police of an investigation into Arriaga, who is not a legal citizen of the United States, according to court documents.
In conversation with Arriaga from June 26 to July 9, the agents assumed the identity of a 13-year-old girl who lived in Cranberry Township, police said.
Arriaga asked to meet and engage in sexual activities with the decoy, sent videos of himself, “engaging in sexual acts with another female, and he suggested they engage in the same sexual activity,” according to the affidavit.
At Tuesday’s sentencing before Common Pleas Court Judge Joseph Kubit, a Spanish interpreter worked with assistant public defender Michael McFarland, who represented Arriaga, to interpret the proceedings.
McFarland told Arriaga his conviction would likely result in his deportation due to his immigration status, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had filed a detainer against him.
In addition to the prison and probation sentence, Arriaga was ordered to register as a sex offender for 25 years under Megan’s Law and was given credit for having served 430 days in the county prison.