The Flagler County Sheriff's Office announced on Monday that they'd arrested 25-year-old Alfred Smith after he allegedly drove to Palm Coast to meet a minor for a sexual encounter. Smith, a resident of Daytona Beach, was booked into the county jail the same day on two felony charges.
Already before this incident Smith was a sex offender, having been previously arrested on charges of lewd or lascivious molestation of a victim under 12 years old by an offender over 18 years old. He was on probation for that incident when Monday's incident occurred.
According to the FCSO's release on the matter, Smith was communicating with who he believed to be a 16-year-old girl, and the conversation had become inappropriate in nature. He reportedly sent explicit photos of himself over social media. The person he was said to be communicating with was not actually a teenage girl, but in fact an independent actor posing as one who reported their findings to the FCSO. When not committed by a government official, such methods do not meet the legal parameters of entrapment.
Smith and the person he was communicating with reportedly arranged to meet at a gas station in Palm Coast at night. Upon his arrival, he was confronted by FCSO deputies who arrested him after he stepped out of his car. In Smith's pockets, the FCSO says deputies found a condom which seemed to have been brought with him for the activities he had in mind. He was charged with traveling to meet or lure a child after using a computer, and unlawful usage of a two-way communication device. Smith's bond was set at $252,500, all but two thousand of which was from the first of those two charges.
“This pervert thought he was traveling to Flagler County to take away the innocence of a child but instead he meets Flagler County Sheriff’s Office deputies who were waiting for him,” Sheriff Rick Staly said of Smith. “Obviously, he has not learned anything from his prior offense and being on sex offender probation. Now it’s time for him to learn a lesson in prison before he can hurt a child.”
