photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

John Grant Redding, left, appears in Douglas County District Court Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024, with his defense attorney, Michael Clarke.

A Lawrence man is facing a minimum of 4.5 years in prison and 25 years as a registered sex offender after he was found guilty Thursday in Douglas County District Court of electronic solicitation of a child.

The defendant, John Grant Redding, 38, pleaded no contest to the felony solicitation charge after his attorney, Michael Clarke, and Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez negotiated a plea deal that would drop other charges and that would prohibit Redding from arguing for a downward departure at sentencing.

Valdez, providing a factual basis for the plea to Judge Amy Hanley, said that in May 2022 the mother of a boy in Shawnee County had reported that her son had been interacting online with someone and that a nude picture was exchanged. It was then discovered that a person going by “CrazyGrant418” had been interacting inappropriately with her son and other juveniles while playing the game Fortnite online. That adult male was eventually determined by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to be Redding, who was arrested in January and posted a $100,000 bond.

Redding was originally charged with one count of sexual exploitation of a minor by promoting a sexual act with the intent to distribute a recording or photograph of the act. The charge involved a child under the age of 13, an off-grid felony that could have resulted in a life sentence. Redding also faced one felony count of aggravated indecent solicitation of a child involving a second child under the age of 13, one felony count of aggravated endangerment of a child and one misdemeanor count of promoting obscenity to children.

By pleading to the single electronic solicitation count, Redding faces at least 4.5 years in prison and possibly more depending on the findings of a presentence investigation. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 23.

Redding has had other run-ins with the law for crimes involving minors, including pleading guilty in 2018 to two counts of contributing to child misconduct and one count of unlawfully hosting minors consuming alcohol.