Guatemalan man to plead guilty in sex sting

A man in Penn Hills accused of trying to coerce a young girl into sex and being in the country illegally after being deported is set to admit his crimes in U.S. District Court.

Horacio Miranda-Mejia, 26, who is from Guatemala, had been charged last year with trying to arrange sex with a 12-year-old girl who turned out to be an FBI agent.

He was also charged with illegal re-entry of a removed alien.

He and his lawyer have indicated that he will waive indictment and plead guilty to an information charging him with the re-entry count and receipt of material involving the sexual exploitation of minors. Court papers indicate that prosecutors will drop the charge of attempted coercion in exchange for the plea. An information is a charge typically brought by the U.S. attorney when someone has cooperated with investigators.

Mr. Miranda-Mejia was supposed to plead this week but the hearing has been pushed back until June.

Last June, an undercover agent looking for pedophiles created an online account posing as a 12-year-old in Pittsburgh.

Mr. Miranda-Mejia took the bait, prosecutors said, making contact on June 22.

The agent tracked his phone number and identified him as Mr. Miranda-Mejia, who had been previously investigated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for immigration violations. DHS gave the FBI a photo of him, which matched the one on his online account.

Mr. Miranda-Mejia chatted with the supposed 12year-old on a messenger app and began asking increasingly sexual questions, the FBI said.

At Mr. Miranda-Mejia’s request for a photo, the agent sent him an image of a young girl.

Mr. Miranda-Mejia said she was pretty and escalated the sex talk, saying he wanted to perform oral sex on her and asking if she wanted to have sex with him, according to a complaint.

The agent replied that he was scaring her and tried to call off a meeting several times. But Mr. MirandaMejia persisted and told her that he wouldn’t hurt her.

Agents were waiting for him when he arrived at an apartment complex where the undercover agent said the girl lived.

Mr. Miranda-Mejia had been deported in 2018 but reentered the U.S.