COWEN, W.Va. (WBOY) — A Raleigh County man has been charged after allegedly traveling to Webster County for sex with a minor.
On Feb. 20, troopers with the Webster County detachment of the West Virginia State Police were called to assist the Webster County Sheriff’s Department with an individual at the Go-Mart in Cowen, according to a criminal complaint.
While en route, troopers learned that the individual, identified as Robert Smith, 28, of Beckley, had “traveled from Beckley into Webster County to meet and engage in sexual intercourse with what he believed to be a 15-year-old female,” troopers said.
The conversations between Smith and the individual he assumed to be a 15-year-old girl began in August 2022, and those conversations “later became more sexual in nature,” before Smith “physically traveled to meet at Go-Mart in Cowen,” according to the complaint.
Smith has been charged with soliciting a minor via computer. He is being held in Central Regional Jail.
