Font ResizeLAS CRUCES - A man who tried to entice a 13-year-old girl near a park has been sentenced to probation, according to a judgment filed Monday.
Joshua Chavez, 33, of the 1500 block of Corbett Avenue, was convicted Dec. 9 of aggravated stalking (victim younger than 16) and enticement of a child.
Third Judicial District Court Judge Stephen Bridgforth suspended a 2 1/2-year prison sentence and ordered Chavez, who has been in jail since his arrest more than eight months ago, to be placed on supervised probation instead.
The girl told Las Cruces Police officers she had been with her 4-year-old brother at the La Vida Nueva Park between Stull Drive and La Fonda on April 8 when a bald Hispanic man in a primer-gray Chevrolet Cavalier pulled up.
"Come here," he said, waving her over through a down window, according to documents filed Friday in court.
When she shook her head no, he demanded again, "Come here now!"
Scared, she and her brother ran home and she told her father, who went to the front yard and spotted the car just as it passed in front of their home. He recognized Chavez, an Alamogordo native he realized had been gawking at his daughter the previous weekend as she played in the sprinklers in their front yard with her dogs.
The father and his children got in his vehicle, found Chavez nearby, sitting in his car and talking to another girl, wrote down his license plate number and called police, who detained Chavez at a nearby Pic Quik store.
Pornography and
When questioned, Chavez told police he did try to stop and talk to the girl, but she ignored him.
As part of his conditions of release, Chavez will have to complete 80 hours of community service and register with the DNA Index System.
Ashley Meeks can be reached at ameeks@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5462
