A 31-year-old Tennessee man was sentenced to 180 months in federal prison after investigators say he traveled to Lonoke County believing he was about to meet a 14-year-old girl for paid sex. United States District Judge James M. Moody Jr. handed down the sentence on Thursday, along with five years of supervised release, for McKinney, who pleaded guilty in June to one count of attempted enticement of a minor.
The case traces back to an undercover operation the Lonoke County Sheriff's Office and Covenant Rescue Group ran in June 2025, according to KATV. An undercover officer posed as a minor female on a social media platform typically used for soliciting prostitutes, and McKinney made contact there before moving the conversation to text messages, per the station's report. He asked the person he believed was a minor how old she was, and the undercover officer told him she was 14.
Investigative findings showed McKinney agreed by text to pay a set amount for specific sexual acts, and he proposed meeting for intercourse in exchange for money, according to the release cited by the station. He then drove to the arranged meeting location, where law enforcement officers were waiting and took him into custody. In a post-Miranda interview, McKinney admitted he intended to meet someone for sex after learning she was 14, the same account notes, and he acknowledged exchanging multiple text messages with the person he believed was underage.
A Federal Grand Jury Indictment and a Guilty Plea
A federal grand jury indicted McKinney on one count of attempted enticement of a minor on September 3, 2025, the station reported. He pleaded guilty to that indictment on June 3, 2026. The federal system does not permit parole, meaning McKinney is expected to serve his full sentence rather than become eligible for early release.
The U.S. Department of Justice, Eastern District of Arkansas stated in a release that McKinney was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison along with five years of supervised release; 15 years is equivalent to the 180-month sentence reported by KATV. Court records cited by the station also show McKinney has prior felony convictions for aggravated burglary, arson, burglary and statutory rape. Assistant United States Attorney Lauren Eldridge, of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas, prosecuted the case.
Federal law under 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b) makes it a crime to use the mail or interstate commerce to attempt to persuade, induce, entice or coerce a minor into criminal sexual activity, carrying a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life. The FBI led the investigation into McKinney, with the Lonoke County Sheriff's Office and Covenant Rescue Group assisting.
What Covenant Rescue Group Actually Does
Covenant Rescue Group, founded in 2019, trains law-enforcement officers to catch traffickers and stop abusers, according to AL.com. The organization's chief training officer has said it does not directly make arrests or try cases; instead, employees sit in on missions, help scope out operations and coach arrests, the outlet reported. Covenant's chief operating officer said the nonprofit advised on operations that resulted in 107 arrests in 2025.
Covenant says it provides funding, specialized training and equipment to law-enforcement agencies investigating human trafficking and child exploitation, according to Yellowhammer News. Its training program runs 40 hours followed by a live sting operation conducted alongside the participating agency, per a report from WBRC. The group has assisted in similar operations elsewhere, including a Priceville, Alabama sting the week of July 20, 2026, that resulted in seven arrests with help from the Morgan County Sheriff's Office and Morgan County District Attorney's Office, and a Trussville, Alabama operation that led to six arrests of men accused of targeting children for sex.
A Surge in Online Enticement Cases Nationally
The Lonoke County case reflects a broader spike in online enticement activity tracked nationally. The CyberTipline operated by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received 1.4 million reports concerning online enticement in 2025, and reports of child sex trafficking to the organization jumped 323% compared with 2024. More than 800 of those reports involved an offender who traveled to meet a child in person, mirroring the drive McKinney allegedly made to the arranged meeting spot in Lonoke County.
The center also logged more than 80,000 sextortion reports within its enticement data and an average of 137 financial-sextortion reports per day, a 37% daily increase over the prior year. More than 53,000 reports were urgent enough to be escalated for law enforcement as involving a child in imminent danger, the organization said.
Arkansas has seen similar activity close to home. A White County sting that snared four men on October 23 produced Class Y felony charges, bonds as high as $250,000, and an arrest warrant for a fifth suspect, drawing on the FBI's Little Rock Field Office, Homeland Security Investigations Little Rock, the Arkansas State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and police departments in Searcy, Van Buren and Jonesboro. A separate Fayetteville operation run with Homeland Security Investigations and state task forces reportedly ended in 11 arrests on charges of internet stalking of a child, though that figure comes from a lower-confidence account. Statewide, Arkansas State Police investigators recorded 391 sextortion cases in 2025, a 118% increase over 2024, while reports of online enticement before in-person contact surged to 5,653 cases, up nearly 490%.
