St. Cloud Man Pleads Guilty to Soliciting a Minor

ST. CLOUD -- A St. Cloud man has pleaded guilty to trying to pay a 15-year-old girl for sex.

Forty-one-year-old Ryan Mulliner was arrested in a prostitution sting last November. He pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to one count of Prostitution - Offering to hire someone believed to be 13-16 years-old for sex.

According to the criminal complaint, Mulliner told investigators he went to the hotel to try to convince the girl to stop prostituting herself. Records show, however, text messages from Mulliner included terms commonly associated with buying sex, and he wanted to make sure it wasn't a trap by the police.

Mulliner was arrested at the hotel where the encounter was to take place and police say he had a large amount of cash on him.

Mulliner told investigators he was just going to meet the girl to convince her to "please don't do this anymore."

As part of the plea, Mulliner is expected to be sentenced to an 18-month stayed sentence, with 20 days of jail and/or home monitoring, attend a sexual exploitation program, complete a psychosexual evaluation and be on probation for 10 years.

He'll be sentenced May 24th.