ROWAN CO., N.C. — An Iredell County man has been arrested for the second time in four months for sex crimes involving a child.
Jake Robert Kelly, 29 of Statesville was arrested in December of 2018 for First Degree Kidnapping, Dissemination of Obscene Material to a Minor, Indecent Liberties with a Child, and Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor, in a case which involved Kelly and a runaway child from Rowan County.
Jake Kelly
In February of 2019, Mr. Kelly was released from the Rowan County Jail to await his trial date, after posting bond. On Wednesday, April 10th, 2019, Rowan County Sheriff’s Office detectives received notification that Jake Kelly had again contacted the child victim on a social media messenger site.
An investigator with the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office conducted a five day undercover operation, and communicated with Kelly through the social media site, as if he were the child victim.
Detectives say Kelly sent sexually explicit messages and arranged to leave Statesville to meet the child victim near China Grove to have sex. On Monday, April 15th, when Mr. Kelly arrived at to meet the child, he was met by Rowan County Sheriff’s Office detectives and arrested.
Kelly was charged with Solicitation of a Child by Computer and two additional counts of Dissemination of Obscene material to a minor. He was
