BENTON, Ill. – A Peoria man will spend the next ten years in prison after he attempted to travel to southern Illinois to engage in sexual activity with a purported minor.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Illinois says Mitch Titus, 34, pleaded guilty to one count of attempted enticement of a minor on December 14th, 2023.
Prosecutors in court hearings presented evidence that Titus responded to a post on a social media forum by an undercover detective from the Illinois State Police that was posing as a minor.
Titus reportedly had sexually explicit conversations with a person he believed to be a 14-year-old from September 27th to October 4th, 2022.
He then arranged to meet the purported minor in Carbondale, where he met by and detained by law enforcement.
“This federal prison sentence reflects the serious threat the defendant could have had on an actual minor, who luckily in this case was purported,” said U.S. Attorney Rachelle Aud Crowe.
Illinois State Police and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce assisted in the investigation.
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