Browsing through the personals and casual encounters section on Gainesville’s Craigslist page Thursday morning, Demarquarius D. Truitt clicked on a post titled “yung 1 all by herself.”
At 1:22 a.m., Truitt, 23, sent an email to the original poster, who was looking for a man.
“What’s up, let’s have some fun,” he wrote.
He then asked for the woman’s age.
“Im 14 is that 2 yung 4 u?” the girl wrote back.
Truitt then asked for the girl’s number and began texting her about plans to get together.
“We just gonna have good sex den I’ll bring you back,” he wrote.
Around 4:20 a.m., Truitt drove to meet the girl but was greeted by Gainesville Police, who arrested him.
In a press conference Monday afternoon, the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office identified Truitt, David A. Hurtt, Michael S. Smith, Dylan T. Kestel. Pierce C. Harrell and Dennis T. LaRoche, as suspects arrested by officers from ASO, and Alachua and Gainesville police departments during a five-day Internet sex sting that ended earlier that day.
The operation, code named “Operation Tailspin,” began on Wednesday afternoon with about nine officers posing as 12- to 14-year-old children online.
For the next few days, detectives exchanged emails and text messages with the male suspects.
During the conversations, the suspects talked about having sex with the girls.
Police lured the suspects to designated meeting spots and arrested them during the five-day operation.
The suspects are currently facing felony charges, which include using a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony, using a computer to solicit a child and a parent, and traveling to meet after using a computer to solicit a child and guardian.
“This is something that we take very seriously here in Alachua County,” Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell said at the press conference.
The sting used a grant worth about $400,000 to lure the online sexual predators and arrest them, she said.
ASO reports gave these accounts of police arresting the suspects:
Harrell, a 19-year-old UF student from Plant City, believed he was talking to a 13-year-old girl about meeting to have sex. He later admitted to police he traveled to have sex with the girl but did not have plans to go through with it. He was in Alachua County Jail and met a $3,000 bond.
Hurtt, 20, drove from Jacksonville thinking he was going to have sex with a 14-year-old girl.
During a text message conversation Thursday, Hurtt asked the girl if she had condoms, writing he had one and “will probably need at least two or three,” according to the report.
Hurtt is in jail with a bond set at $750,000 as of Monday night.
Smith, 24, drove from Chiefland to Gainesville thinking he was going to have sex with a 14-year-old.
Smith later admitted he drove to Gainesville to have sex with the girl but suspected the exchange was a joke by his friends.
As of Monday night, Smith is in jail with a bond set at $500,000.
Kestel, 20, believed he was talking to a 12-year-old girl and her guardian.
He drove from Lady Lake to meet and have sex with the girl.
Kestel later told police he denied having any intentions of having sex with the girl, according to the report.
Kestel is in jail with $500,000 bond as of Monday night.
LaRoche, 30, thought he was talking to a 13-year-old girl who was home alone.
He drove from Lake City to Gainesville to have sex with the girl, according to the report.
LaRoche was in jail but he met his $3,000 bond.
The sting was the second online sexual predator operation conducted by ASO this year, said ASO Spokesman Art Forgey.
In February, police arrested 23 suspects in a similar online sting titled “Operation Tail Feather,” according to Alligator archives.
Darnell urged Alachua County parents to monitor their children's Internet activity and to notify authorities if they find anything suspicious.
“The mission of the Alachua Sheriff's Office and the other law enforcement agencies within Alachua County is to lure these individuals and make sure that we take them down,” she said. “We want them to know that this is not the location to come and victimize children.”
Contact Chris Alcantara at calcantara@alligator.org.
