U.S. v. McMillan

Record contained sufficient evidence to support defendant’s conviction on charge of persuading person under 18 to engage in criminal sexual activity, where defendant had posted ad on craigslist entitled “sell your teenage daughter,” and where defendant subsequently engaged in series of emails with undercover agent posing as father of teenage daughter who was willing to engage in sex. Ct. rejected defendant’s claim that conviction required proof that he actually contacted teenage girl and further found that conviction could be supported by evidence that defendant had engaged in adult-to-adult communications that were designed to persuade minor to commit forbidden sexual acts. Ct. further held that Dist. Ct. erred in admitting evidence of uncharged conduct that defendant had simultaneously exchanged emails with same undercover agent posing as different teenage girl, since Dist. Ct. had failed to weigh probative value of said evidence prior to its admission. However, any error was harmless where proper weighing process would have resulted in admission of said evidence to rebut defendant’s claim of innocent intent.