A former Bible study teacher who had raised money for a planned church youth mission to Peru was sentenced Monday to two years in jail for a failed attempt to meet a teen boy for sex.

Timothy Myers, 34, of Unity pleaded guilty in January to charges of attempted aggravated indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor and illegal use of a communications device in connection with a sting operation by the state Attorney General’s Office in 2017.

Investigators said Myers used a smartphone app to arrange to meet someone he believed to be a 14-year-old boy for sex. He was arrested when he arrived at a Hempfield hotel with two condoms he bought 10 minutes earlier at a nearby Walmart.

“This defendant had extensive contact with children through his volunteer work, but at the same time he was soliciting sex from a minor online,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said. “I’m grateful for the hard work of our child predator section to take him out of the community and out of a position where he could harm children. My office will prosecute anyone who abuses or attempts to abuse children to the fullest extent of the law.”

Myers did not speak during his sentencing hearing.

Myers faced a potential sentence of three years in prison, but pleaded for leniency through defense attorney Matthew Ness, saying he suffered from memory loss and dementia related to diabetes.

Ness said Myers cooperated with police and took responsibility for his actions by pleading guilty rather than going to a trial.

Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio said Myers’ medical condition was the reason she imposed a sentence that will require him to serve a minimum of 364 days in the county jail. Myers will be required to spend up to a year on house arrest during his period of parole and an additional five years on probation.

Myers was the third local man arrested as part of the attorney general’s sex sting operation in June 2017.

Harold B. Enriquez, 34, of Hempfield pleaded guilty in December 2017 to charges of unlawful contact with a minor, attempted involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault of a child and child pornography. He was sentenced last year by Bilik-DeFazio to up to nearly two years in jail and seven years on probation.

Brian Oliver Zupancic, 29, of Jeannette was charged with unlawful contact with a minor, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child and illegal use of a communications device. His case is pending. Zupancic is scheduled to appear for a pretrial hearing next month before Bilik-DeFazio.

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