Columbus man charged in Lima Internet sex case

9/25/2004

LIMA, Ohio - A Columbus man was arrested yesterday after he arrived here to meet with what he thought was a 14-year-old girl he chatted with via the Internet, police said.

He is the 33rd person arrested in the department's undercover campaign against the online solicitations of minors, police said.

Justin Highfield, 29, is accused of arranging to meet with a Lima Police officer who was posing as a teenage girl in an Internet chat room.

Mr. Highfield told the officer that he wanted to meet her to have sex.

He was charged with importuning, and was being held in the Allen County Jail pending arraignment in Lima Municipal Court.

LIMA, Ohio - An Lima man was sentenced yesterday to 10 years in prison for his role in the fatal shooting and robbery of Robert Lee Starks in March.

Jesse James Hardy, 20, pleaded guilty in June in Allen County Common Pleas Court to involuntary manslaughter and robbery.

Judge Richard Warren also ordered Hardy to pay a portion of the victim's funeral expenses.

Hardy was one four men charged and convicted for the March 22 slaying of Mr. Starks, 19, who was shot at his Pine Street home.

TIFFIN - A Fostoria man pleaded guilty yesterday in Seneca County Common Pleas Court to aggravated robbery for a purse-snatching last month in downtown Fostoria.

Sean M. Dayton, 19, faces the possibility of a 3 to 10-year prison sentence. Sentencing has not been scheduled.

Dayton is being held in the county jail in lieu of $200,000 bond.

Dayton was driving around downtown Fostoria with two juveniles Aug. 6 when he saw a woman walking in an alley. He got out of the car and attacked the woman from behind, taking her purse and throwing her to the ground, authorities said.

The woman suffered a broken finger and other hand injuries. Two witnesses grabbed Dayton and recovered the purse. The two juveniles face delinquency charges in Seneca County Juvenile Court.