LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) - A registered sex offender has pleaded guilty to attempted murder for stabbing a 16-year-old Florida girl at the end of a chase that started when a truck-stop cashier recognized them from a crime show’s video.
Steven Myers, 42, of Plant City, Florida, was sentenced Thursday to 35 years at hard labor on the charge of attempted second-degree murder, The Advertiser (https://bit.ly/1kFmJ2Y) reported.
Family and neighbors started social media campaigns, passed out fliers, and contacted the media after the girl went missing from her Tampa area home on June 11. Authorities said she wasn’t kidnapped, but Myers had manipulated her to go with him. The two had exchanged thousands of text messages.
They were found after a Louisiana truck stop cashier spotted them and called police, starting a 40-mile chase. It ended after officers threw down spike strips that blew out five of the six tires on the truck, a stolen work pickup with a welding rig on the back.
Myers stabbed the girl nine or 10 times, but she survived. He also stabbed himself.
Florida detectives said in 2014 that they planned to charge Myers with five counts of using a cellphone to seduce and solicit a minor child for sex.
He has served two Georgia prison sentences, the first for a 1999 conviction on child molestation charges and the second for a parole violation. He was released in February 2012. He had registered as a sex offender in Plant City.
The Associated Press has not identified the girl or her family because of allegations that she was sexually assaulted.
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Information from: The Advertiser, https://www.theadvertiser.com
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