Richard Mark Watwood, 42, formerly of 806 Rachels View, Hermitage, Tenn., was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Bowling Green to three years and 10 months in prison for traveling in interstate commerce with the intent to engage in sex with a minor.

Watwood also received five years supervised release following incarceration, according to a report from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Louisville. Watwood admitted that on Oct. 18, 2007, he traveled from his home in Tennessee to Bowling Green, with intent to engage in sex with a person Watwood believed to be a 13-year-old girl.

Watwood chatted online using Yahoo! Instant Messaging with a person he believed to be a 13-year-old female, but who was actually a member of Perverted Justice and a participant in a Kentucky Bureau of Investigation undercover sting operation exposing online sexual predators. Watwood chatted with the undercover Perverted Justice member on multiple occasions between Sept. 17 and Oct. 18, 2007, according to the report.

The chats were sexually explicit in nature, and Watwood sent, via webcam, pictures of his genitals. Watwood also initiated the idea of meeting and of being the minor’s first sexual experience, according to the report.

Watwood arrived for the meeting with the minor at a house in Bowling Green, where he believed the 13-year-old girl to be home alone for the weekend. Watwood had in his possession a number of Viagra tablets and condoms. Watwood was arrested outside the residence by agents with the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation and has been in custody since that time.

The Warren County Commonwealth Attorney’s Office and the Warren County Sheriff’s Office participated in the investigation.

Sentence — Francisco Javier Vargas-Cuevas, aka Esteban Vargas, 48, of 1910 Harvey Ave., was sentenced to four years and three months in prison for violating federal firearms and immigration laws.

Vargas-Cuevas previously pleaded guilty to charges of illegal re-entry into the United States and possession of a firearm by an illegal alien. Vargas-Cuevas was deported from the United States in 1998 after serving a three-year prison term for conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine from a California conviction. He was also sentenced to two years supervised release, according to a report from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The indictment alleges that on Nov. 15, 2007, Vargas-Cuevas knowingly possessed a loaded .357 magnum revolver, according to the report.