Man pleads guilty to sex charges involving minor

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A man accused of soliciting sex from an Urbana resident in early May pleaded guilty to four charges Tuesday.

During a final pretrial conference, Brian G. Cantrell pleaded guilty to a fourth degree felony charge of pandering obscenity involving a minor, a third degree felony charge of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and two misdemeanor counts of soliciting.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 10.

Urbana police arrested Cantrell, 37, of St. Paris, on May 2 after an investigation was started. Police had been contacted by a resident who received unwanted phone calls and texts from a stranger, later found to be Cantrell, soliciting him for nude sex photos and sexual activity.

Police began monitoring the reporting person’s phone and, through continued communications with Cantrell, arranged for him to meet the resident Cantrell believed to be a 16-year-old in the city.

After Cantrell arrived to the agreed upon meeting location, he was taken into custody by an undercover police officer.

During Tuesday’s hearing, five other charges were dismissed against Cantrell.

Cantrell was previously indicted in Champaign County in February 2013 for telecommunications harassment, disseminating matter harmful to juveniles and pandering obscenity.

He pleaded guilty to pandering obscenity in April 2013 and was classified as a Tier I sex offender in June 2013 as part of a three-year community control sentence.

Community control was revoked in May 2014 after Cantrell did not contest the merits of multiple community control violations including having contact with two minors on Facebook. A one-year prison sentence was imposed against Cantrell after community control was revoked.

Upon his release from prison, Cantrell was subject to post release control for a period of five years.

Cantrell said Tuesday that the offenses in the current case took place while he was on post release control. In addition to a potential maximum consecutive sentence of 78 months in prison, Cantrell faces an additional 1,662 days of imprisonment due to the post release control violations.

Cantrell
https://www.urbanacitizen.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/36/2016/07/web1_Cantrell.jpgCantrell

By Nick Walton

[email protected]

Nick Walton can be reached at 937-652-1331 Ext. 1777 or on Twitter @UDCWalton.

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