Columbus man sought sex with 15-year-old ‘Heather,’ who turned out to be a GBI agent

Michael Thomas Watson was 26 years old when he posted an ad to the online site Craigslist seeking a sexual relationship.

The Columbus man did not say he sought a woman of a certain age. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent who responded pretended to be a 15-year-old girl named “Heather.”

Though the age of sexual consent in Georgia is 16, Watson was not dissuaded by his respondent’s apparent youth, and continued to exchange messages as he set up a meeting.

He set the meeting for Feb. 11, 2015, in a church parking lot near Jordan High School. He arrived with a box of condoms and the back seat of his automobile folded down, adorned with a pillow and bedspread, authorities said. The messages he’d exchanged with “Heather” were still on his cell phone.

The investigators meeting him arrested him for violating Georgia’s Child Exploitation Prevention Act through the attempted online solicitation of a minor.

Now 29, Watson pleaded guilty Tuesday before Superior Court Judge Bobby Peters, who sentenced him to 10 years in prison with two to serve. Watson also will have to adhere to all the restrictions applied to a sex offender, include registering and having no contact with minors, attorneys said.

This story was originally published September 26, 2017 at 3:43 PM with the headline "Columbus man sought sex with 15-year-old ‘Heather,’ who turned out to be a GBI agent."