Real Stories Project

03/06/10: Man, 39, meets 15 year old


Roanoke Times

By Mike Gangloff | The Roanoke Times
Feb. 4, 2010

A Hillsville man who began a sexual relationship with a child he met on the MySpace social networking Internet site is to be sentenced today in federal court.

Dewey Edward Nelson, 39, went by the screen name "Jolly Rancha" when he began exchanging messages with a 15-year-old from Livingston, Texas, in December 2008, court documents said. In February 2009, Nelson rented a car, drove to Texas, and brought the minor back to Virginia. She stayed in his Hillsville apartment for about two weeks, and Nelson and the girl had both sexual intercourse and oral sex numerous times, according to statements he later gave investigators.

Court documents say that Nelson told investigators, however, that he understood oral sex to mean talking about sex.

Nelson told investigators that he had thought he was picking up a 19-year-old woman, but learned sometime during their time together that she was 15. Arrangements were made for the girl's mother to come to Hillsville and take her home.

But Nelson continued telephone and online contact with the girl, court documents said. In May 2009, he drove to Augusta, Kan., where the family had moved, and again brought her back to Hillsville. He told investigators he and the girl had sexual intercourse numerous times.

At some point after the girl left Kansas, she was reported missing. Police in Kansas contacted officers in Hillsville to ask them to check Nelson's apartment. On May 19, 11 days after Nelson and the girl had returned from Kansas, officers came to his apartment. Court documents said Nelson told them he had not had contact with the girl they were looking for, and that the girl with him was his 13-year-old daughter.

Hillsville police checked with their counterparts in Augusta, Kan., and determined the girl with Nelson was in fact the missing 15-year-old. Later on May 19, Hillsville police returned to Nelson's apartment and arrested him.

In November, Nelson pleaded guilty to two federal charges of traveling across state lines to engage in illegal sexual activity, and two charges of transporting a child across state lines to engage in sexual activity. His plea agreement said prosecutors agreed to recommend the minimum prison term called for by sentencing guidelines, and that prosecutors also agreed the mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years would be appropriate if it was lower than the bottom end of the guidelines. It will be up to U.S. District Court Judge Glen Conrad to set the actual sentence.

The MySpace account listed in court documents was still up today, though it had not been accessed since October and claimed to be based in in Tampa. Set up with a heavy metal/horror motif, the site said that "Jolly Rancha \\Mayhem//" was a music promoter.

Details on the profile included straight, engaged and here for friends.