A federal appeals court has overturned the 2017 conviction of a Rhode Island man who pleaded guilty to traveling to Connecticut to have sex with a girl he met online who turned out to be 14 years old.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled Monday that 29-year-old Nicholas Murphy of Exeter, Rhode Island, should not have been convicted because he believed the girl he met in Plainfield, Connecticut, was 16, the minimum age of consent.
Murphy is still serving a five-year prison sentence on the federal charge.
The former Air Force member also pleaded guilty to a state charge of second-degree sexual assault in connection with the same girl and was sentenced to nine months in jail. He has not appealed that conviction.
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