A 54-year-old Athens man was sentenced to four years in Texas state prison this week after pleading guilty to trying to solicit a 15-year-old boy online, a case that ended with him showing up to meet not a teenager but an undercover officer. Justin Glen Gunnels entered his plea in Henderson County on Wednesday, and 392nd District Court Judge R. Scott McKee credited him with eight days already served in jail.
According to court records cited by KLTV, Henderson County deputies arrested Gunnels in an online sting operation after an arrest affidavit detailed how he attempted to pick up a boy he believed to be 15 years old after school for sex. Instead, he met an undercover officer posing as the teen. The station reports that the online conversation included many sexual comments and requests before ending with tentative plans for Gunnels to retrieve the boy after school.
Officers who searched Gunnels's car after the arrest found a knife, Lysol wipes, a tarp, and rope inside, per the same account. Henderson County deputies booked him into the Henderson County jail on February 18, 2025, with bond set at $100,000; he was released later that same day. Following Wednesday's sentencing, the Henderson County Sheriff's Office took Gunnels back into custody and is holding him for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
How Texas Law Treats the Charge
Gunnels pleaded guilty to online solicitation of a minor. Under Texas Penal Code Section 33.021, subsection (c), which covers soliciting a minor to meet for sexual activity, is classified as a second-degree felony, according to FindLaw. The court imposed a four-year term.
The statute also closes a door defense attorneys might otherwise try to use. Section 33.021(d) explicitly removes the defense that an in-person meeting never occurred, FindLaw notes. Texas law further defines a minor under the statute as anyone under 17 or anyone the suspect believes to be under 17, which is what gives law enforcement explicit legal footing to run undercover stings by posing as minors online.
That framework did not always exist in its current form. In 2013, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled in Ex parte Lo that an earlier version of the online solicitation statute was overbroad under the First Amendment. The Legislature later amended the statute.
The Henderson County Task Force
The Henderson County Crimes Against Children Task Force was conceived as a collaborative unit in 2021; planning and coordination took place in 2022, and the goal was for it to begin operations no later than January 2023, according to the Texas District & County Attorneys Association. The task force was built specifically to overcome resource limitations common to rural East Texas police departments. The Henderson County task force is a pilot with potential to serve as a model for rural communities combating child exploitation.
Judge McKee, who presided over Gunnels's plea and sentencing, previously served eight years as the elected Henderson County District Attorney from 2009 to 2017 before being elected to the bench, and he was appointed in late 2025 to the Board of Directors of the Judicial Section of the State Bar of Texas. He is also the same judge who, in August, sentenced another Athens man to 30 years after 66-year-old Kevin Eugene Jones pleaded guilty to five counts of child pornography possession in a separate case that similarly originated through the Henderson County task force.
What Comes After Prison
Gunnels's sentence does not end his legal obligations once he leaves custody. A conviction under Penal Code Section 33.021 triggers mandatory sex offender registration under Chapter 62 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, requiring him to register with local law enforcement for 10 years following release, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
