Cozad resident Wesley Maudlin was ordered by District Judge Patrick Heng to report to the Dawson County Jail by March 8th following sentencing in Dawson County District Court on Friday. Maudlin was originally charged with Felony Enticement by an Electronic Device for an incident around January 20, 2023. He later pled guilty to an amended charge of Attempted Enticement by Electronic Device along with Contributing to the Delinquency of a Child and two counts of Disturbing the Peace, all misdemeanors. An affidavit outlining the case was not filed in court records.
Deputy County Attorney Destiney Vinzant said she didn’t believe Maudlin would be successful on probation citing 8 opportunities for pre-sentencing investigation(PSI) interviews with the Probation Office, which she says was the largest number of PSI interviews she has seen arranged. She continued that it took Maudlin to be arrested to finally complete the PSI investigation. Vinzant added that Maudlin made statements in his PSI that she believe were indications of him “lacking some accountability”. She said he also indicated that the victim made no attempts to verify his age to her when he knew her from prior contacts.
Defense Attorney Ken Harbison said that Maudlin asks for the opportunity for probation and understands he “hasn’t made good efforts at this point”. For his part, Maudlin apologized for not following terms of the PSI investigation. He said he is involved in recovery groups and has been “clean” since getting out of jail.
Judge Heng sentenced Maudlin to 180 days in jail on Attempted Enticement, 180 days on Contributing to the Delinquency of a Child and 90 days on each count of Disturbing The Peace. All of the sentences are to be served concurrently and he was given credit for 27 days already served. Maudlin is also subject to registration under the Sex Offender Registration Act.
