CALIFORNIA
Times of San Diego
POSTED BY DEBBIE L. SKLAR ON JULY 1, 2016
A former seminary student from Ohio, who traveled to San Diego to try to adopt or purchase female toddlers in Tijuana so he could sexually molest them, was sentenced Friday to nearly 16 years in federal prison.
Joel Alexander Wright, 23, pleaded guilty in April to attempted enticement of a minor.
In pronouncing the 188-month sentence, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw called Wright’s conduct “incredibly deeply disturbing and horrific.”
The judge said Wright — who was born severely disabled and has a litany of health problems including blindness — accomplished many things in life but for whatever reason, over the past few years, pursued children.
“It’s an extremely predatory sign,” the judge said. Wright has been diagnosed with paraphilia — a condition characterized by unusual sexual desires — and could be rehabilitated, Sabraw said.
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