Man on trial for attempted sex with minor
NORRISTOWN >> While prosecutors contend he was seeking to have sex with a 14-year-old girl at an Upper Merion hotel, a Philadelphia man adamantly denied the accusations.
“I did not believe this person was 14 years of age. I didn’t believe it. I thought it was a lie,” Michael Charles Houston, 26, testified in Montgomery County Court on Tuesday as he recalled the sexually explicit online communications he had with a person who ended up being an undercover detective posing as a 14-year-old girl. “They entrapped me. I’m not fond of these types of crimes. I would never do such a thing.”
Houston, of the 1400 block of East Bristol Street, faces charges of attempted statutory sexual assault, attempted involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and unlawful contact with a minor in connection with alleged incidents that occurred between Aug. 17, and Aug. 19, 2017.
A jury will receive legal instructions from Judge Risa Vetri Ferman on Wednesday morning and then begin deliberating Houston’s fate.
Undercover detectives working with the county’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force testified they placed an advertisement on a social media web site stating “Cub in town… Let’s have some fun – w4m.” Houston responded to the ad on Aug. 17, and an online conversation ensued over the next two days, East Norriton Detective Michael Henricks, a member of the task force, testified for the jury.
During the conversation, Henricks told Houston he was a 14-year-old girl vacationing with her family and staying at an Upper Merion hotel. Henricks sent Houston a photo depicting a teenage girl and he testified Houston proceeded to engage in a sexually explicit conversation.
But Houston testified he believed the photograph depicted a woman who was 18 or 19 and that he never intended to have sexual relations with a teenager. Houston claimed he continued the conversation and agreed to meet in the lobby of a King of Prussia hotel on West DeKalb Pike on Aug. 19 in order to determine exactly with whom he was conversing.
Houston added he believed the “w4m” reference in the advertisement that placed by detectives on Craigslist meant “woman for man.”
“This case was very much about an overzealous prosecution,” defense lawyer Vanessa Bellino argued to the jury during her closing statement, claiming the undercover detectives introduced the sexual innuendos, prompted Houston’s sexually explicit responses and controlled the tone and subject of the conversations. “This is the task force taking the conversation down the sexual activity rabbit hole.”
Bellino argued Houston’s goal was to determine who was behind the messages and that he did not believe he was communicating with a teenage girl.
But Assistant District Attorney Matthew Brittenburg argued that even after Henricks identified himself as a 14-year-old girl Houston continued the conversation and agreed to meet. Brittenburg argued Houston could have cut the conversation off as soon as he was told he was communicating with a 14-year-old but he did not.
“The defendant went to that hotel in King of Prussia because he thought there was going to be a 14-year-old girl meeting him there,” Brittenburg argued during his closing statement to jurors.
Brittenburg also challenged the defense claim that Houston was entrapped.
“You should reject that notion of the defense,” Brittenburg argued. “A person who is ready to commit a crime and is shone the door is not entrapped.”
Upper Merion Detective Robert Smull testified authorities took Houston into custody when he showed up in the lobby of the King of Prussia hotel.
“I stopped him from leaving,” Smull testified.
Houston, who remains free on bail pending trial, faces a possible maximum sentence of 25 to 50 years in prison if he’s convicted of the charges.