Pasco man hoped to teach a girl ‘stuff’ for $100. The undercover detective had other plans

A Pasco man is going to prison for offering a $100 “donation” to a pre-teen girl in exchange for sex.

Guillermo E. Rico withdrew cash from an ATM and drove to Clover Island for the first scheduled meeting in September 2015, but the girl didn’t show.

The arrangement was for $20 that time.

One week later, Rico claimed he no longer was mad at the girl for the no-show, and set up another rendezvous with the higher dollar amount. When the girl said she couldn’t sneak out of her family home, he ended all communication with her.

What Rico didn’t know at the time is the girl was an undercover Kennewick detective who found his Craigslist ad.

Rico, now 20, had posted that he was “looking for a woman” to engage in sex acts and was “willing to give you a donation.”

When told that the person responding to his emails and texts was 12 on the verge of turning 13, he said he was bothered “a little bit” but took it as an opportunity to teach the girl “a lot of stuff,” according to court documents. He had claimed he was 17.

Rico pleaded guilty in Benton County Superior Court to commercial sex abuse of a minor. A charge of attempted second-degree rape of a child was dismissed with the plea.

Last week, Judge Bruce Spanner went along with the recommended sentence of one year and nine months in prison. He could have ordered an additional six months under the standard sentencing range.

Rico had no felony history.

Asked why he did it, Rico told a community corrections officer that “he felt social pressure to engage in sexual relations as his friends who were his age had already been involved in sexual relationships.”

“Mr. Rico wanted to have an encounter with someone who was just as inexperienced as he was,” Josh Boles with the Department of Corrections wrote in a presentencing report. “He saw some ads on Craigslist and created an ad similar to those.”

Rico admitted he was wrong, feels remorseful and wishes he could take back his actions, Boles added.

The investigation was handled by the Southeast Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and Homeland Security Investigations.

This story was originally published October 14, 2017 at 2:01 PM with the headline "Pasco man hoped to teach a girl ‘stuff’ for $100. The undercover detective had other plans."