State v. Jones

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Allegrucci, J.:

Jones was convicted after a bench trial of one count of attempted indecent liberties with a child. He was placed on probation for a period of 24 months. He appeals. The case was transferred from the Court of Appeals pursuant to K. S. A. 20-3018(c).

On February 5,1999, Russell Jones posted a personal ad through Yahoo on the Internet. On February 7, Wichita police officer Richard Mellard responded to Jones’ ad, presenting himself as “Tara,” a 13-year-old girl. Later, “Tara” gave her age as 14.

Between February 7 and March 25, 1999, Jones…