Kan. man gets nearly 27 years in 'sexting' case

A 26-year-old Wichita man was sentenced Monday to nearly 27 years in prison after a federal jury convicted him of luring a teenage girl to send him a nude photo.

U.S. District Judge Monti Belot on Monday sent Shane McClelland to federal prison for 320 months as a repeat sex offender, saying the conduct was clearly inappropriate as the defendant was seeking out young girls. The judge also imposed 10 years of supervised release and forfeiture of McClelland's cellphone.

The judge said a long sentence was necessary to deter him from further crimes and to protect the public.

In May, a federal jury found McClelland guilty of one count of obtaining a picture of the exposed genitals of a 14-year-old girl from upstate New York via Yahoo! messaging. He was acquitted of a similar count involving another teen.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Hart argued for enhanced penalties in the 15-30 year range due to McClelland's criminal history.

He served five years in prison for a 2004 conviction for aggravated indecent liberties with a 13-year-old girl, and had been paroled from prison just seven months when he began trolling teen websites to aggressively pursue young girls.

Hart introduced as evidence a transcript of the 2004 case in which McClelland admitted having sex with the teen.

"I don't have anything to say at this point," McClelland told the judge at his sentencing.

His defense attorney, Timothy Henry, argued the enhanced penalties requiring between 20 to 30 years imprisonment because of a previous conviction amounted to "cruel and unusual punishment," noting the latest crime for which his client was convicted amounted to one picture.

"We are dealing with a large segment of the population who are sexting," he said. "It doesn't make it right, but we are talking about a sentence that is extremely harsh for this individual."

He also questioned why the federal government was charging McClelland as if he was producing child pornography.

"She was old enough to know better," Henry argued.

But the judge said he didn't know of any statute setting a "know-better standard" for sentencing. McClelland showed no respect for the law by having sex with a 13-year-old girl, escaping from custody and enticing two 14-year-old girls to send him nude photos, Belot said.

"This defendant does not have a positive history of any kind to persuade me he shouldn't serve a long prison term," he said.