A registered sex offender convicted in Fayette County of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor was recently caught in a Circleville police sting, the Scioto Post reported Monday.

Dalton J. Leyes was booked into the Pickaway County Jail Oct. 6 on charges of importuning, a fourth-degree felony, and compelling prostitution, a third-degree felony. The Scioto Post newspaper published a press release from the Circleville Police Department that states the police were told that Leyes was soliciting sex from a minor via social media texts, and that the investigators pretended to be the minor and staged a meeting with Leyes.

Leyes was required to register as a Tier II sex offender after being convicted in Fayette County in December for unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, a fourth-degree felony, after admitting to having sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old. In February, Leyes was sentenced in the Fayette County Court of Common Pleas to six months in a community-based correctional control facility.

Fayette County Prosecutor Jess Weade said at the time that the state recommended a penitentiary sentence.

In the Fayette County case, a charge of compelling prostitution, a third-degree felony, was dismissed by the state as a part of the plea deal reached last December.