A 19-year-old man who admitted to sexting and having sexual relations with a 16-year-old girl will serve prison time.
Colton L. Minard, Green River, recently appeared in the Third District Court of Judge Richard Lavery at a sentencing hearing to two felony counts of sexual exploitation of children and one misdemeanor charge of promoting obscenity.
In exchange for Minard’s guilty plea to one count of sexual exploitation of a child, he was given an 8-10 year prison sentence and the other charges were dismissed.
After receiving numerous inquires about this specific case, Sheriff Mike Lowell made the following statement in a press release.
“The case began with Det. Matt Wharton’s investigation of a reported instance of child abuse,” Lowell said. “That investigation led him to Minard. It was learned - and information obtained through search warrants issued for his Facebook account and later for his cell phone confirmed - that Minard was engaged in contacting numerous underage girls as young as 12 and encouraging them to sneak out and meet him for sex. Sexually explicit photographs and texts were also exchanged.”
According to court documents, on Jan. 17, 2018, Det. Wharton of the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office received a search warrant for Minard’s Facebook account in regards to a solicitation of a minor. Wharton reviewed 11,256 pages of activity on that account.
During his investigation, Wharton saw Messenger conversations between Minard and KRJ, who was 16-years-old at the time.
It was discovered in this conversation that Minard had made arrangements to meet with KRJ to have sexual intercourse. The two didn’t have a relationship. The two then exchanged inappropriate sexting images.
Wharton located KRJ though the Casper Police Department and the girl told them she and Minard started sexting and he told her he was 17. She told an officer, she sent nude photos of herself because he requested them; and he sent her photos also.
KRJ was angry when she found out Minard was 18 years old and told the officer if she had known he was 18, she probably wouldn’t have had intercourse with him.
“In the Minard case, our detectives discovered a dangerous sexual predator, went after him, and took him out of circulation,” Lowell said. “They did a great job.”
Minard was an athlete at Green River High School, competing on the cross country and track teams.
According to the Nov. 15, 2017, issue of the Green River Star, Minard signed a letter of intent to compete for the Central Wyoming College Rustlers in Riverton, with plans to compete in the 1,500-meter and 3,000-meter distance events.
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