Norfolk man guilty in Portsmouth case involving girl, 13

PORTSMOUTH

In the wee hours of an April morning, a woman got suspicious when she heard her 13-year-old sister's phone. She took the phone, pretended to be the young girl and told the caller she would walk to a nearby Walmart parking lot to meet him.

The 31-year-old woman testified Tuesday about how she juggled calls to Jason J. Pye, 28, giving him directions to the store and also phoning police dispatchers.

Her name is being withheld to protect the identity of the minor.

She said in court that she found the Norfolk man's number on her sister's phone along with a text message asking if he could come get her.

The woman said she tried to talk softly, like a young girl, and when she asked the man if he remembered that she was 13, he indicated that he did.

Police officers went to the woman's house and followed her to the Walmart, where she saw Pye in the car he said he would be driving.

She tapped on his window, and he got out and hugged her just before police arrested him, she said.

Pye testified that he had talked to the girl briefly while he was on the phone with an 18-year-old acquaintance of hers. He said he had been told the girl would be 18 in two weeks.

He said that during the April phone conversation, he thought he was talking to a grown woman and thought she was joking when she said she was 14.

Circuit Judge James A. Cale Jr. found Pye guilty of using communication systems to facilitate certain offenses against children.

He dismissed a charge of attempt to have carnal knowledge of a child between 13 and 15 years old.

Pye faces five to 30 years on the felony charge.

He is on the sex offender registry for convictions in 2009 in Norfolk for taking indecent liberties and aggravated sexual battery of a minor.

Janie Bryant, (757) 446-2453, janie.bryant@pilotonline.com