Depraved Seminarian|Sentenced to 15 Years

SAN DIEGO (CN) — A former seminary student was sentenced Friday to 15 years and 8 months in federal prison for trying to buy or adopt a little girl in Tijuana so he could sexually molest her.

Joel Alexander Wright, 23, admitted in a plea agreement that he wrote "numerous sexually explicit emails in which he describes to a cooperating witness and an undercover federal agent how he intended to sexually assault various children in Mexico, from infants up to 4 years old," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.

Beginning in November 2015, Wright put ads on Craigslist Tijuana seeking a female tour guide. When the cooperating witness responded, Wright wrote: "that he wanted to 'adopt/own a baby girl (under the age of 3) and I want to have intercourse with her after I own her but don't be telling people that ... I won't pay until I have seen the baby and I will pay the parents then ... the cheapest baby under 3 would be good,'" according to the U.S. attorney.

The U.S. attorney's statement continues: "In another email with an undercover federal agent, Wright admitted that he wrote he had 'picked up an infant pain relief med and a pretty outfit which I think should fit the 1 or 2 year old.' He emailed that he 'will try to find some lube here at the store that we can use.'"

Wright then flew from Ohio, where he was a seminarian, to San Diego, where he was arrested, with a duffle bag that contained "baby clothes, sleep aids, bottles, toys, candy and lubricant."

He could have been sentenced to life in prison.

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