
Lavon S. Sellers and his lawyer Jacob Clark face the judge for Sellers’ sentencing hearing in Lewis County Superior Court.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A Texas man who engaged in an online sexual relationship with a Lewis County boy who initially said he was 16 will be off to prison to serve a five and a half year sentence.
Lavon S. Sellers and the teen met on a website called “Hot or Not” in the summer of 2014 and eventually the boy confessed he was only 14 years old, according to lawyers handling the case.
There’s no indication the two met, but they made a plan where Sellers would come to Washington and they would spend time in Seattle together, according to court documents and the boy’s mother.
“When Mr. Sellers found out he was 14, that’s when things should have stopped, and it didn’t,” defense attorney Jacob Clark said. “Mr. Sellers and this teen believed they loved each other.”
The boy attempted suicide after the relationship came to light and then he was caught Skyping with Sellers after being ordered by his father not to.
Sellers, now 32, was brought to the Lewis County at the beginning of last month and held on $100,000 bail.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and two counts of luring four weeks ago and yesterday was back in Lewis County Superior Court.
Under the plea deal, both sides agreed to recommend to the judge he get 66 months in prison.
“I know Mr. Sellers never meant to hurt anyone by these actions,” Clark told the judge. “He’s been a law abiding citizen all his life.”
The boy’s mother told the judge her son is about two years behind his peers, and has always been vulnerable and trusting. And now, the mother said, he’s a young boy with no spirit, no excitement for life, no self-esteem and remains confused by what Sellers taught him.
Lewis County Sirens.com is not naming the mother, to avoid identifying the victim.
Judge Nelson Hunt agreed with the sentence recommended by Clark and Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead.
“Well, it wasn’t the intention, but it did, it did hurt a whole lot of people,” Hunt said.
Sellers was ordered to have no contact with the boy, and to pay about $3,200 in fines and fees including the extradition costs.
Outside the courtroom, Clark said the people and businesses who make the sort of online applications where the two communicated are immune to prosecution, even though they are made accessible to both adults and children.
“That is the travesty,” Clark said.
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For background, read “Lewis County Sheriff’s Office arrests man in Dallas for long-distance sexploitation of local teen” from Sunday September 6, 2015, here


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