Dexter man receives 20-year sentence for child enticement

Robert Cooper

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. — A Dexter, Missouri, man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after he was found guilty of enticement of a child in March.

On Monday, Stoddard County Prosecuting Attorney Russ Oliver announced that Robert Cooper, 42, received the 20-year sentence from Judge Joe Z. Satterfield.

A Stoddard County jury found Cooper guilty of the unclassified felony of enticement of a child on March 14. The jury recommended a 20-year sentence in the Missouri Department of Corrections. Under Missouri law, the judge is precluded from entering a sentence greater than what was recommended by the jury.

The case centered around Cooper luring, through Facebook Messenger, what he thought was a 13-year-old girl to a motel in Dexter where he arrived with a duffel bag filled with ropes, ball-gags, handcuffs, pornography and other sexual apparatuses. However, instead of a 13-year-old girl, Cooper met the Dexter Police at that motel.

“This case should be a wake-up call to all parents of the dangers that social media poses to their teenage children,” said Oliver of the trial and recommended sentence. “Robert Cooper is a predator and if he had been messaging an actual 13-year-old girl, the defendant had the clear intention that she would have been bound, handcuffed, sexually assaulted and taken to Florida by the dDefendant. We believe that Robert Cooper needs to spend every minute allowed by law behind bars to prevent him ever having the opportunity to harm a child.”

Evidence was presented showing that between Sept. 26-28, 2020, Cooper engaged in a Facebook private messenger conversation with a person whom he believed to be a 13-year- old female child. In reality, Cooper was communicating with an adult female in Wayne County, Missouri, who was posing as a 13-year-old girl in an effort to expose predators who were seeking to engage in sex acts with children on Facebook.

The conversation began with Cooper asking what her age was. She replied 13-years-old. The defendant then began to describe sexual acts that he wanted to perform on her. Cooper told her that she was going to be his 13-year-old sex slave, that he was going to tie her up and would get her pregnant.

The following day the messaging escalated where Cooper repeatedly acknowledged that she was 13-years- old and that she was a virgin. Cooper told her that he had “other 12-year-old slaves” and that they were all going to have sex together. Cooper stated that he was going to perform anal and vaginal intercourse on all of them and would have a dog perform oral sex on her. He further stated that he was going to bind and gag the child while doing these sex acts against her.

During the conversation, Cooper disclosed that he was in Dexter, Missouri, and told the fake 13-year-old girl to get a ride from one of her friends and come to Dexter to meet him.

Detective Cory Mills with the Dexter Police Department testified that he took over the Facebook account that Cooper was messaging the fake 13-year-old girl. During that continuing conversation, Cooper said that he was going tie her up, gag her, perform sex acts on her and ultimately to take her to Florida. Mills arranged a meeting the Dexter Inn. Motel officials were very cooperative with the investigation and allowed Mills and fellow detective Thomas Forkum to set up in one of their rooms.

When Cooper arrived at the room and was met by police, without being asked any question by officers, he immediately exclaimed “I didn’t know she was 13.” Cooper had in his hands as he entered the motel a suitcase filled with three bundles of nylon rope, two gag ball sex toys, a blindfold, silver handcuffs, black handcuffs, a pink sex harness, a silver choke dog collar, a tape recorder, four pornographic DVDs and two pairs of stained women’s underwear.

Cooper was later interviewed by Mills and admitted that he was the person engaged in the Facebook messaging conversation with the fake 13-year-old girl. He admitted he believed her to be 13-years-old. Cooper admitted that he told her he was going to tie her up and make her his sex slave and that he said he was going to take her to Florida. But Cooper said he was just trying to scare the girl off Facebook.

After finding him guilty of enticement of a child, the jury arrived at a recommended sentence of 20 years.