ST. GEORGE — An Arizona man accused of sending nude photos to who he believed was a 13-year-old girl was arrested during an undercover operation targeting online predators seeking to commit crimes against children.

Richard Warren Hammon, 39, of Colorado City, Arizona, was arrested Feb. 8 and booked into jail facing five third-degree felony counts of dealing in materials harmful to a minor.

The arrest followed a months-long investigation that began in March 2023 when the St. George Police Department conducted an undercover online operation targeting adults who use chat rooms and other online applications to communicate with children.

During the undercover operation, a suspect named “Rick” contacted who he thought was a 13-year-old girl but was actually the undercover detective posing as an adolescent, according to charging documents filed with the courts.

Within the first few messages, the report states, the suspect, who was using an online social app, inquired about the girl’s age, which is when the decoy identified themselves as a 13-year-old female. 

As the chat threads continued, the report alleges, the conversation turned sexual when the suspect started describing in explicit detail various sexual acts with who he believed was an adolescent. The report says the suspect advised the child more than once not to tell her mother about the conversations and would made reference to “how much trouble he could be in for having that type of conversation with a child,” the detective noted. 

Within three days of the online meeting with the decoy, investigators say, the suspect reportedly sent several videos of himself describing a number of sexual acts, and as the text conversations continued, the suspect reportedly sent the undercover officer the first of several photos of his genitals. 

By early May 2023, the suspect asked to see explicit images and went on to describe the various acts he “wanted to participate in with the 13-year-old child,” the affidavit states and the suspect was identified as Hammon. 

On Sept. 5, 2023, investigators met with the suspect regarding the messages, which is when the suspect reportedly conceded he was communicating with the profile created by the undercover agent, and when asked, he admitted to sending the illicit photos, but said he initially thought the girl “was about 18 but she later told him she was 14 or 15.” 

He said he assumed the girl had to be older than 13, even though she told him she was, and when questioned further about his internet search history, Hammon told investigators he used terms that included “young girls nude”  when conducting the online searches.  

Based on allegations that a 39-year-old man was communicating with — and explicit photos — to what he believed was an adolescent, Hammon was booked into the Washington County Jail facing the five felony counts of the harmful materials charges – one for each photo sent.  

On Feb. 9, the case was filed by the Washington County Attorney’s Office and Hammon was formally charged with the felony counts. Later that same day, the defendant made an initial appearance in 5th District Court in St. George. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Thursday. The suspect remains in custody on $10,000 bail.

This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

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