Know more. This case arises from an undercover sting operation targeting sexual predators in San Joaquin County. A jury found defendant Afzal Khan guilty of contacting a minor under 14 years of age with intent to commit a sexual offense Pen.
Defendant makes three claims on appeal: 1 the evidence was insufficient to sustain these convictions; 2 the prosecutor committed prejudicial misconduct; and 3 the police engaged in entrapment as a matter of law. We disagree and affirm. The ad instructs to "TXT NMBR," lists a phone number, and includes three photos of a female with the face partially covered by pink heart emojis. The female in the photos was 25 years old. Agent Rueter testified that 1 age 21 is the youngest age the site will allow you to list, 2 the site did not verify her age, and 3 she has spoken to people who created ads on the site when they were under She further explained what the emojis and abbreviations meant based on her experience.
For example, FS stands for "full service, which includes oral and sexual penetration, whatever the responder to the ad wants"; BB stands for "[b]areback, meaning no condom"; BBBJ means "[b]areback blow job"; and Greek means anal sex.
The ad received about responses. Defendant was one such responder. On April 9, , he called the number twice, but no one answered, and sent the following text messages: "Hi," "How are you doing," and "Are you available? Agent Rueter testified she did not want to answer any audio calls because the operation had not officially started. Two minutes later, defendant asked, "Are you available now please? Two days later a Sunday , defendant texted the number, "Hi good morning how are you doing today, are you available now.
Agent Rueter responded via text later that day, "I b avlble 2mrow if u wnt to c me then" with an emoji. The next day Monday , defendant sent four text messages to the phone number: "Hi good morning," "How are you doing," "What time are you going to be available," and "?
