A north Alabama man who traveled from Arab to Boaz to meet who he thought was a 14-year-old girl for sex was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years in state prison, prosecutors said.

John Thomas Taylor, III, 34, of Arab, pleaded guilty to traveling to meet a child for a sexual act on July 15.

In July 2023, Taylor responded to a dating and messaging profile where someone posed as a “vulnerable 14-year-old girl from a broken home who was interested in a relationship for an older man,” according to Marshall County District Attorney Jennifer Bray.

Taylor “began sexually explicit and vulgar conversations” with the “child” over several days before agreeing to meet each other for sexual acts.

Boaz police and the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office became involved and orchestrated a sting operation to take down Taylor if he traveled to meet the child for sexual acts.

On July 19, 2023, Taylor traveled from Arab to Boaz to meet the child for sexual purposes.

“Thankfully, law enforcement was at the location to take the Defendant into custody preventing him from having the opportunity to rape a child as he planned,” Bray said.

The district attorney recommended Marshall County Circuit Court Judge F. Timothy Reilly sentence Taylor to 45 years in prison while Taylor’s attorney requested the minimum sentence.

Reilly ultimately handed down a 25-year sentence to Taylor.

“Today I’m thankful to the legislature for realizing the importance of creating laws that give law enforcement the tools to take these pedophiles off our streets before they have an opportunity to harm an actual child,” Bray said in a statement.

“When we see cases where teenage girls form relationships with much older, adult men, we often see that they begin communicating with these men when an event in their lives has made them especially vulnerable, such as a break-up, parents divorcing, or trouble at school, which is the type of 14-year-old girl that was created for this operation.

“I’ve been prosecuting sex crimes for several years and they often come with their own set of challenges – the willingness of a victim to testify before a jury about the most terrible thing they’ve had to endure, he said she said factual scenarios, and a lack of physical evidence. However, cases like Mr. Taylor’s allow us to get significant jail time for pedophiles without any of the hurdles often found in sexual assault cases before they prey on an actual child victim,” Bray continued.

“It is clear from the many pages of messages and Mr. Taylor’s confession, that he had every intention that day to have sexual intercourse with a vulnerable 14-year-old girl. Mr. Taylor will be exactly where he deserves to be over the next 25 years, and I’m grateful a child did not have to suffer to ensure our community of such.”