A Tennessee resident who was arrested last year in Simpson County on suspicion of attempting to solicit a juvenile for sex was sentenced Tuesday in Bowling Green.

Aaron Schultz, 48, of Chattanooga, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 127 months in prison, after having pleaded guilty to attempted online enticement of a minor and attempted travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct.

According to court filings, Schultz interacted online last year with someone who held themselves out to be a 14-year-old girl, but who was actually an undercover police officer.

Schultz identified himself to the agent as “Mark,” and sent the agent sexually charged messages and arranged to meet with them in Franklin the next day for sex, leading to his arrest on Aug. 4 in Simpson County, court records show.

Members of the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Secret Service and multiple Simpson County-based law enforcement agencies took part in the investigation.

Federal sentencing guidelines, which take into account a defendant’s crimes in their current case and any prior criminal history, called for a prison sentence for Schultz in the range of 121-151 months.

Appearing Tuesday before U.S. District Court Chief Judge Greg Stivers, Schultz read from a written statement in which he expressed contrition for his actions and acknowledged that he become a “prisoner to lust.”

“I can and will do anything to change my behaviors that led me here,” Schultz said. “My arrest was something that sharply halted my disobedience and ungodliness.”

Schultz said that an accumulation of stress in his life from years of work as a nurse, the lingering effects of a back injury and leaving a church where he had previously been a member had the effects of placing a strain on his marriage, which has since ended in divorce.

Schultz said he became addicted to pornography, and court records indicate that when he was interviewed by police in Franklin, he acknowledged other acts that included creating a fake profile on a social media dating application that he used to meet and engage in sex acts with a 13-year-old girl, and to improperly touching a fourth-grade girl once while he was employed as a school nurse.

“My response to stress by engaging in sexual sin ruined my walk with God,” Schultz said. “I will not waste this opportunity to repent and make the most of whatever second chance I’ll be given.”

Schultz’s attorney, federal public defender Angela Rea, argued that Schultz should be sentenced to the statutory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Rea said that Schultz’s confessions to police of additional sexual improprieties, while not helpful for his legal case, ultimately enabled him to realize the need to seek mental health and sex offender treatment.

“Mr. Schultz found himself relying on self-destructive outlets for coping with stress and anxiety, he couldn’t find any way out of it and the shame just built and built in him,” Rea said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky asked for a 121-month sentence for Schultz, the low end set by his sentencing guidelines, but Stivers levied a more stringent penalty for what he termed “reprehensible conduct.”

“I understand that nursing is a very stressful profession, however coping with the stress by seeking out a child to have sex with definitely needs to be punished,” Stivers said. “I don’t see much of an excuse for your behavior.”