A Dexter man has been found guilty of felony enticement of a child after he arrived at a local motel in 2020 with the intent of meeting a 13-year-old girl for sex.
Robert Cooper, 42, instead found Dexter police officers waiting for him and was taken into custody.
Stoddard County Prosecuting Attorney Russ Oliver said Cooper was found guilty by a jury March 14 and they have recommended a 20-year sentence in the Missouri Department of Corrections. A sentencing hearing will be held April 25.
“This case should be a wake-up call to all parents of the dangers that social media poses to their teenage children,” Oliver said in a press release. “Robert Cooper is a predator and if he had been messaging an actual 13-year-old girl, the defendant had the clear intention that she would have been bound, handcuffed, sexually assaulted and taken to Florida by the defendant.
“We believe that Robert Cooper needs to spend every minute allowed by law behind bars to prevent him ever having the opportunity to harm a child.”
Cooper was tried before Judge Joe Z. Satterfield in Stoddard County.
Oliver said evidence presented in the case included Facebook private messenger conversations from Sept. 26-28, 2020, between Cooper and the individual he believed was a 13-year-old girl. Cooper instead was messaging an adult woman in Wayne County, who was posing as a 13-year-old in an effort to expose predators, Oliver explained.
The messages were sexually explicit and Cooper indicated he wanted to have intercourse with the person he believed to be a 13-year-old girl, authorities say.
Cooper disclosed during the conversation that he was in Dexter, and suggested the individual meet him in Dexter.
“Detective Cory Mills with the Dexter Police Department testified that he took over the Facebook account that Cooper was messaging the fake 13-year-old girl,” Oliver said. “During that continuing conversation, Cooper said that he was going tie her up, gag her, perform sex acts on her and ultimately take her to Florida.”
Mills arranged to meet Cooper at a Dexter motel, where the man was taken into custody.