WINNEMUCCA - Tony John Dehart, who pleaded guilty to luring a minor after having inappropriate online conversations with young girls, was sentenced Monday in Sixth Judicial District Court to 48 to 120 months in prison.
Dehart's public defender, Matt Stermitz, asked the court to go along with parole and probation's recommendation of 19 to 48 months jail because he didn't think that probation was "on the table."
Deputy District Attorney Roger Whomes argued that Dehart is dangerous and Judge Michael Montero "ought to remove him from the community for as long as (he) can."
He asked for a sentence of 48 to 120 months and backed up his reasoning by reading aloud to the court sexually explicit excerpts from Dehart's Facebook communications with three middle school-aged girls.
Dehart told the court that he has a drug problem that caused him to do things on Facebook that he wasn't even aware he was doing.
"When you have a drug problem," he said, "you don't care about anything else but getting high."
Dehart said that he wants help, but did not feel he should be "strictly punished."
The mother of one of Dehart's victims also spoke at the sentencing and told the defendant that she could not accept his apology.
"As a mom, I don't think the max sentence you have (available) is enough," she said to the court.
Judge Montero ordered that Dehart serve a prison sentence of 48 to 120 months with credit for 198 days served and lifetime supervision and registration.
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