A not guilty plea has been entered on behalf of a Mountain Home man arrested after showing up for a meeting he thought had been arranged to set a time and place to have sex with a person he believed was a 13-year-old girl.
During a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Monday, it was announced that two attorneys, Emily Reed and Gray Dellinger, are set to represent 29-year-old Thomas Zulker.
On March 13 last year, Zulker is alleged to have started texting a person he believed to be a young girl from Harrison.
Zulker, however, was sending messages to a person who acts as a decoy and confronts potential child molesters face-to-face.
The “decoy” told investigators that he had placed a fake profile of a 13-year-old girl on Instagram.
Zulker arranged a meeting with the decoy in Mountain Home and sent at least one sexually graphic picture of himself to the “girl.”
When the decoy arrived at the predetermined location, Zulker was reported to already be at the site just “walking around.”
At one point, Zulker saw a Mountain Home Police Department patrol vehicle come through the area on routine patrol where Zulker thought he was to meet the minor female and arrangement to have sex.
He left the area and the decoy was not able to confront him at that time. The decoy followed Zulker to his place of residence, confronted him and Zulker agreed to talk.
Zulker was said to have told the decoy about “issues” he had been having and things he had felt driven to do because of those issues, including downloading child pornography .
He said he had contacted hundreds of potential underage victims and received about 100 pictures sent to him by those he had spoken with.
Zulker said his “preference” was for victims 13-years-old and up. During the videotaped interview, that lasted slightly more than an hour, the decoy read some of the text messages that Zulker had sent to the decoy thinking they were going to the fake 13-year-old female.
During one dialog between Zulker and the decoy, Zulker is reported to have said that being with someone of the age of the fake female had been a “fantasy” with him.
He had written to the decoy that “girls your age are just so hot and I want to try it. I like the innocence and the learning together.”
The decoy took the case materials to the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office March 27 last year .
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