CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (AP) - A Virginia man pleaded guilty and was convicted for a second time on Thursday of sending sexually explicit messages to a child.
Darren Wayne Penrose, 59, of Floyd, was in the circuit courts of his home county and Montgomery County after propositioning a 13-year-old girl he’d met online who turned out to be an undercover adult police officer, The Roanoke Times reported.
In September, Penrose was found guilty in Floyd County of using an computer to solicit a minor and of proposing a sexual act with someone younger than 15. At a Tuesday hearing, he was sentenced to serve five years in prison, with another 10 years suspended, for the Floyd County charges.
On Thursday, Penrose appeared in Montgomery County via a video link from jail and pleaded guilty to a charge of soliciting a child by electronic means. A judge who presided over the hearings in both counties imposed another five-year prison term, then suspended all of it. The judge said that he was mindful that Penrose already had time to serve.
All of Penrose’s charges came from a 2019 exchange of electronic messages with a girl who was actually a Christiansburg police officer who specialized in Internet crimes against children.
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