By Conrad Dudderar
Staff Writer
EL RENO – A Yukon man arrested in February outside a Yukon fast-food restaurant during an undercover online sting has been sentenced to two years in prison for trying to meet two underage girls for sex.
Cody Lee Ewing, 27, pleaded no contest May 30 to two counts of lewd or indecent proposals to child under 16. He appeared with attorney Jason Spanich for a plea hearing in Canadian County District Court.
Canadian County Special Judge Charles Gass sentenced Ewing to serve 10 years in state Department of Corrections’ custody on both counts – with two years in prison and the balance suspended. He was given credit for the time he served in the Canadian County Jail since his arrest.
The defendant also was ordered to pay fines, victim’s compensation assessments and court costs.
Ewing will be supervised by DOC after his release from prison and must comply with special conditions for sex offenders, according to the court minute.
Lewd or indecent proposals to child under 16 is a felony crime punishable by 3-20 years in prison and a maximum $10,000 fine.
Assistant District Attorney Walter Mengden formally charged Ewing March 3 for making “electronically generated” proposals to two females he believed were under 16 so they would have “unlawful sexual relations” with him, the charging document shows.
Ewing was the only Canadian County resident caught in February during an undercover online investigation by the Canadian County Sheriff’s Office and nonprofit organization Safe from Online Sex Abuse (SOSA).
In all, five men from Oklahoma, Colorado and Texas were arrested during a four-day operation that targeted adults seeking children for sex in Canadian County.
The arrestees allegedly came to a “decoy” house, hotels and restaurants in Canadian County to meet underage girls.
SOSA provided two adult females who communicated with the men through video chats, text and social media messages and phone calls.
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In Ewing’s case, the Yukon man had initiated contact with who believed were 14- and 15-year-old girls on a phone messaging app. He really was communicating with the adult-age undercover decoys.
The conversations quickly turned explicitly sexual with Ewing advising both females that he wanted to have a “sexual threesome” with them, according to a probable cause affidavit signed by Canadian County Sheriff’s Sgt. David Cates.
“Cody told both girls to (take an) Uber to the Taco Bell on Cornwell in Yukon, and that he would take them back to his apartment across the street to engage in sex with them both,” the court document reads.
“Cody wanted both of the girls to text when they arrived, and he would walk across the street to them.”
Sgt. Cates arrested Ewing on Feb. 24 in front of the fast-food restaurant as he was walking to meet the underage girls.
Ewing admitted he knew having sexually explicit conversations and any sexual contact with the two minors were illegal.
Canadian County Special Judge David H. Halley set Ewing’s at $50,000 because of the “seriousness of the crime,” according to a court order.
