LAKEPORT, Calif. – A Clearlake man has been sentenced to more than four years in state prison for soliciting sex with a teenage girl through Facebook messages and texts, and using Facebook to send a lewd message to another girl.

Jason James Russell, 29, was sentenced by Judge Arthur H. Mann on April 16 to the maximum term of four years in state prison for arranging a meeting with a minor with the intent to commit a sexual offense and going to the arranged meeting place at the arranged time.  

Russell will be required to register as a sex offender pursuant to Penal Code Section 290 when he is released from prison, according to the Lake County District Attorney's Office.

The case was prosecuted by Senior Deputy District Attorney Ed Borg, with Russell represented by Tom Quinn.

The case originated with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

On Jan. 19, a concerned parent contacted the Lake County Sheriff’s Office to report that her 15-year-old daughter had received several sexually explicit and vulgar messages from Russell via the social networking site Facebook as well as text messages to her cell phone, the District Attorney's Office said.

The minor had accepted a friend request from Russell; she and Russell had a mutual friend, but she was not otherwise acquainted with him, the District Attorney's Office reported.

According to the investigation, the teen initially responded to Russell’s messages by informing him that she was 15 years old and telling him to stop contacting her. However, Russell persisted and the minor told her parents.

Sheriff’s Investigator Kellie Joseph obtained the minor’s cell phone and, posing as the minor,  contacted Russell and pretended to be interested in getting together with him.

Joseph arranged a meeting with Russell at Austin Park in Clearlake, and Russell was apprehended at the scene. He admitted that he had gone to Austin Park with the intention of having sexual relations with the 15-year-old minor.  

Based upon the results of her investigation, Joseph were able to obtain an enhanced bail of $250,000.

Russell was also on a grant of felony Proposition 36 probation for possession of cocaine and the Probation Department filed a petition to revoke his felony probation, according to Borg.

After Russell was arrested, another minor victim came forward. That minor had received a similar vulgar message from Russell on Facebook and had immediately informed her parents. After investigation, a separate case was filed against Russell.

On March 5, Russell pleaded guilty to one count of arranging a meeting with a minor for a lewd purpose in the first case, one count of annoying and molesting a minor in the second case and admitted to violating his probation in the felony drug case.

At the sentencing hearing on Monday, April 16, Judge Mann sentenced Russell to four years, the maximum sentence for the solicitation charge, with a concurrent term of one year for annoying and molesting a minor, and a subordinate term of eight months, consecutive, for his felony probation case, for an aggregate term of four years and eight months, Borg said.

Because two of the charges to which Russell pleaded require registration as a sex offender, he will serve his term in state prison, according to Borg.