A registered sex offender is headed to prison for three years after pleading guilty Thursday totrying to solicit a teenage girl in Mendota.

Edward W. Pickford, 28, of Dalzell pleaded guilty in La Salle County Circuit Court to one count of indecent solicitation of a child and violating the Sex Offender Registration Act, both Class 3 felonies carrying two to five years in prison.

In exchange for his plea, La Salle County prosecutors agreed to dismiss a second count of solicitation. Prosecutors further agreed to a pair of three-year sentences, which Pickfordwill serve concurrently.

Pickford declined to address Circuit Judge Michelle A. Vescogni before sentencing.

Had the case gone to trial, prosecutors were prepared to call a teen who alerted Mendota police inOctoberthat she had been contacted via social media by a man who tried to solicit an illicit act.

Police traced the social media account to Pickford, a registered sex offender who had previously served an 18-month sentence for solicitation and who had pleaded guilty to being in a restricted school zone.

Pickford provided a statement in which he admitted to the illicit contact with the teen and to not alerting authorities to opening his social media account.