A West Reading man has been found guilty by a Berks County jury of trying to arrange a sexual encounter with someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl.
Darian Garman, 33, of the 600 block of Franklin Street was accused of speaking online with an undercover agent who was posing as a mother trafficking her daughter. Garman agreed to meet and pay for a sexual act from the girl, prosecutors said.
He was found guilty Tuesday of attempted involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, attempted statutory sexual assault, possessing a firearm without a license and related charges following the trial before Judge Patrick Barrett.
Garman remains in the county prison awaiting sentencing.
Garman was charged Oct. 3 after responding to an online ad posted as part of a detail by the Berks County Human Trafficking Task Force, which is made up of local police officers, county detectives and Homeland Security Investigations agents to combat sex trafficking.
Spring Township Lt. Steve Brock, who is one of the task force supervisors, said that on Sept. 12 it placed ads on websites commonly used within the sex trade.
The next day three men were arrested on charges they tried to arrange sexual encounters with minors.
Brock and court documents gave this account of Garman’s case:
Officers working undercover communicated with those who responded to the ads. When Garman called one of the officers, she posed as a mother who was prostituting her 13-year-old daughter.
The conversation went back and forth for the next several weeks. Officers identified Garman after he sent photos of himself to the agent. During the conversations he asked for nude photos of the daughter and asked for specific sex acts from her.
Garman asked the agent and her fictional daughter to meet him in Wyomissing to engage in a sex act with the girl in exchange for cash.
Garman arrived first and ran to his vehicle as marked Wyomissing patrol vehicles entered the nearly empty parking lot and approached him.
As he left the lot, a detective was able to positively identify the driver and lone occupant as Garman. A brief pursuit ensued until officers lost sight of Garman.
Officers next went to his residence and spoke with family members who were able to track him down. They advised him to turn himself in at the Spring Township police station.
He arrived and was interviewed by officers.
He initially stuck with a false story about his friend having his truck all day, maintaining he was at a property doing maintenance there.
After he was confronted with numerous inconsistencies, he admitted he had located the number on the original website the task force posted and communicated with the purported mother about meeting her daughter.
He said his intention was not to go through with the act but to shoot the mother for setting it up. He admitted having a loaded .44 Magnum with him to shoot her.
When he saw police, he fled and went to the property to hide the gun. He was taken there so officers could retrieve the gun.
Garman did not have a valid concealed carry permit. His phone was seized as part of the investigation.
Source: Berkshire mont
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