Man Sentenced For Online Solicitation of Minor

GREGG COUNTY — A Gregg County man who thought he was meeting a 14-year-old boy for sex when he was arrested last year, pleads guilty to online solicitation of a minor. According to the Longview News-Journal, Christopher Scott Church, 35, was handed a 12-year prison sentence. He had faced up to 20 years for the second-degree felony. Church was given credit for the 329 days he has spent in the Gregg County Jail since his March 13 arrest in a Longview Police Department sting in cooperation with the Dallas Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. According to evidence offered by Assistant District Attorney Chris Botto, Church and an undercover agent corresponded on Craigslist before moving to texts to each other’s cellphones.