Lexington County man already registered as a sex offender sentenced to 6 years for soliciting juvenile for sex

Columbia, SC 04/17/2024 - Attorney General Alan Wilson announced this week that a Lexington County man who was already a registered sex offender was sentenced to six years in prison for soliciting someone he thought was a minor.

On April 15, 2024, Steven Leslie Wright pleaded guilty to Criminal Solicitation of a Minor and Attempted Dissemination of Obscene Material to a Person Under 18. In August 2021, an investigator with the Lexington County Sheriff’s Office was participating in an undercover chat operation. During that operation, the investigator was posing as a 13-year-old girl and Wright began communicating with the investigator’s underage persona on social media. The conversation quickly turned sexual, and Wright began soliciting the person he thought was a 13-year-old girl for various sexual acts. He sent several explicit images to the investigator and requested they send him explicit images.

Judge Daniel Coble in Lexington County sentenced Wright to six years in the South Carolina Department of Corrections, with credit for 901 days he’s already served. He will be required to re-register as a sex offender upon his release.