A Duval County man was sentenced to eight years in prison Wednesday after driving to St. Johns County in February to meet someone he believed was a 14-year-old girl for sex, only to find waiting detectives instead. Aaron Platts had spent three days exchanging sexually explicit messages and a photo with what he thought was a teenage girl on a dating website before making the trip.
The girl was actually an undercover detective with the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office, which ran the sting operation in February, according to Action News Jax. When Platts arrived expecting to meet the girl, he was met by detectives instead, and the outlet reports he ignored their commands and placed his hands inside his waistband in an apparent attempt to keep them from handcuffing him.
No-Contest Plea Covers Multiple Charges
Platts ultimately pleaded no contest to a set of charges that included traveling to meet a minor for sex, attempted lewd or lascivious battery sex act, and resisting arrest, along with other offenses tied to the case. The station's report does not detail the sentencing judge, the court docket, or where Platts will serve his time, but it confirms the eight-year prison term handed down Wednesday.
Once he completes his prison sentence, Platts has been ordered to serve five years of sex-offender probation, and he has been designated a sex offender. Those final conditions close out a case that began with a single undercover profile and ended with a felony conviction stretching years into Platts's future.
Part of a Wider Pattern of North Florida Stings
Online sting operations targeting adults who seek out minors have surfaced repeatedly in the Jacksonville area in recent months. In a separate federal case, the U.S. Department of Justice, Middle District of Florida says a Jacksonville man was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison after an FBI agent posing as a 13-year-old child drew him into an online conversation in north Florida between February 17 and March 6, 2026.
Another north Florida defendant, identified as Cobb, pleaded guilty earlier this year to attempting to entice a 13-year-old child, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, Middle District of Florida. Federal prosecutors said Cobb faces a minimum of 10 years and up to life in prison, with a sentencing hearing that had been set for May 27, 2026. Together, the cases point to an ongoing effort by state and federal investigators in the Jacksonville region to pose as children online in order to identify adults attempting to arrange sexual contact with minors.
