Internet user is sentenced in teen sex plan

Jace Radke

Monday, Oct. 7, 2002 | 9:27 a.m.

A Florida man convicted of traveling to Las Vegas to have sex with a 14-year-old girl has been sentenced to 37 months in prison.

James Allen Jahner Jr., 45, had sexually charged conversations with what he thought was a 14-year-old girl in an Internet chat room, but the teen turned out to be an undercover FBI agent.

"During the trial as the (FBI) agent described this chat room, and the hits that they got, it reminded me of a swarm of flies or piranha waiting for meat to be dropped in the water," U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson said to Jahner. "You are one of those out there ready to devour a minor."

Jahner, 45, was found guilty on June 20 of interstate travel with intent to have sex with a minor and coercion and enticement of a minor using the Internet.

After nearly four months of conversations, Jahner arranged to meet the girl at a northwest Las Vegas hotel, where he was arrested by FBI agents on April 12. A search of Jahner's hotel room produced lingerie, Viagra, condoms and a laptop computer with a webcam, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Davis said.

Jahner told Dawson Friday that his actions and the FBI's undercover operation had cost him everything, including his wife and sons.

"Because of the emotional state I was in, I allowed myself to be misled," Jahner said. "The government portrayed me as a despicable human being, who is a menace to minors all over the world, and that is simply not true."

Davis said that Jahner planned to have sex with a minor, and even though he had chances to stop he continued with his plan.

"This defendant is someone who preys on children," Davis said. "He had no problem meeting a 14-year-old and having sex with her."

Jahner was also sentenced to three years' probation, and asked to serve his prison time close to Little Rock, Ark., where his mother lives.