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Layton child sex predator case mirrors task force stings; man to serve 6-plus years

By Mark Shenefelt - | May 10, 2022

Mark Shenefelt, Standard-Examiner

The 2nd District courthouse in Farmington is pictured on Monday, Nov. 1. 2021.

FARMINGTON — The mother of a 13-year-old girl told a judge on Tuesday that she and her daughter both face ongoing anguish resulting from a Layton man having enticed the girl on social media and sexually abused her at his apartment.

“We have to deal with the PTSD, the anxiety, not being able to sleep,” the woman said at the 2nd District Court sentencing hearing for Travis Carter Wood, who turns 19 this week.

Wood’s case mirrors the type of crime that state and federal task forces are trying to stamp out: children 13 or younger being enticed online to meet adults for sexual activity. The task forces file dozens of cases each year in which an agent poses as a 13-year-old online and the perpetrator sets up an in-person meeting to have sex. At the meeting site, task force agents arrest the adult on charges of enticing and sexually exploiting a child, alleging the person intended to have sex with the victim.

But Wood’s case is an example of the reality envisioned in the enticement stings. He met a real 13-year-old online — one troubled by mental illness and suicidal ideation — then they exchanged explicit pictures via social media, they met, and sex resulted.

Prosecutor Coral Sanchez of the Davis County Attorney’s Office outlined the events for Judge Davis Connors in explaining a plea bargain reached with Wood and his court-appointed attorney, Mark Arrington.

Five days after the events of Aug. 25, 2021, prosecutors charged Wood with first-degree felony rape of a child, which carries a presumptive sentence of 25 years to life in prison, plus counts of sodomy upon a child, sexual exploitation of a minor and dealing in material harmful to a minor. In the plea bargain, the first charge was reduced to first-degree felony aggravated sexual abuse of a child. The other charges were dismissed.

Sanchez said the attorneys agreed that Wood should be sentenced to six years to life in prison, rather than the 10- or 15-year options allowed by law.

“Mr. Wood is young, and he met the victim a week before he picked her up,” Sanchez said. “Like a lot of young people, (the victim) was struggling, had mental health struggles and suicidal ideation.”

After she met Wood online, she reached out to him, Sanchez said. “She was so depressed. He agreed to pick her up from her home, and he encouraged her to leave her home in the middle of the night,” the prosecutor said. “Instead of reaching out and providing support, he ended up having sex with her.”

Asked if he had anything to say before sentencing, Wood declined. Connors said he accepted the plea bargain, and without further comment, he sentenced Wood to six years to life in prison.

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