BLOOMFIELD — A Dexter man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday.
Robert Cooper, 42, of Dexter was convicted in March of enticement of a child. The jury, as part of the conviction, recommended a 20-year sentence for Cooper.
On Monday, Judge Joe Z. Satterfield accepted the sentence recommendation in a Stoddard County Courtroom following arguments from the state and defense. Stoddard County Prosecutor Russ Oliver said under Missouri law the judge is precluded from entering a sentence greater than what was recommended by the jury.
The case centered around the defendant luring, through Facebook Messenger, what he thought was a 13-year-old girl to an area motel. Law enforcement previously presented evidence that he arrived with a duffel bag filled with ropes, ball-gags, handcuffs, pornography and other sexual apparatuses. However, instead of a 13-year-old girl, Cooper met the Dexter Police at that motel.
“This case should be a wake-up call to all parents of the dangers that social media poses to their teenage children,” said Oliver. “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.”
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 motel, where Cooper was taken into custody.