JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A California man accused of trying to force a Florida teenager he met over the Internet to accompany him to Texas was sentenced to eight years in prison as part of a plea agreement.
Owen Crutcher, 44, of Lakewood, Calif., pleaded guilty Monday to unlawful sexual activity with a minor and interference with custody. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop kidnapping and child abuse charges.
Crutcher could have faced life in prison if convicted of the kidnapping charge.
Police said Crutcher corresponded online with the 17-year-old Jacksonville Beach girl before traveling to Duval County in May to meet her. She told police that he threatened to harm her parents if she didn't join him on a trip to Texas.
Assistant State Attorney Richard Mantei said Crutcher had sex with the girl before driving her to Louisiana.
Using her cell phone, the girl sent text messages with a description of the car and Crutcher's name to her ex-boyfriend as they traveled.
Crutcher was arrested May 18 in Louisiana after he and the girl stopped in a McDonald's restaurant where she told employees she had been kidnapped and locked herself inside a restroom.
"It was never my intention to do anything illegal," Crutcher told Circuit Judge Henry Davis. "I made some bad decisions, but that doesn't make me a bad person."
The plea agreement also requires Crutcher to register as a sex offender in Florida. Davis told Crutcher he could be committed indefinitely after prison to the Florida Civil Commitment Center in Arcadia, where the state houses sex offenders deemed too dangerous to be released when their sentences are finished.
