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A Magnolia man pleaded guilty of several counts of indecency with a child and online solicitation, during a Montgomery County court appearance July 27.

Nicholas Allen Smith, 23, agreed to the maximum 10 year sentence on four counts of indecency with a child and 20 years for one count of online solicitation of a minor. He was on probation for a previous conviction on two counts of indecency with a child by exposure, in February of 2011.

Prosecutors and investigators said that within two months of Smith’s original plea, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office learned that Smith was continuing inappropriate contact with girls under the age of 17, as well as accessing pornography. Prosecutors filed a motion to revoke Smith’s probation and bond.

“The probation officer and detective working on the case learned that he had a Facebook account under an alias and had friends who appeared to be underage girls,” Nancy Hebert, chief prosecutor of the crimes against children division said. “They sent out messages to the Facebook friends asking them to contact investigators if they had inappropriate contact with Smith. One girl contacted us while several other filed reports.”

Smith pled guilty to meeting a 13-year-old girl from Conroe and her 11-year-old cousin and driving them to his house in Magnolia, in July of 2011. Once at Smith’s home, court records say that Smith played pornographic videos for the girls and exposed himself to them.

The girls’ mothers then contacted deputies after they noticed inappropriate messages on one of the girls’ phones from someone named Nick. An investigation led back to Smith, who was already on probation for indecency with a 13-year-old girl in February of 2011. Detectives said that the phone number Smith used to text the girl in the latest incident was the same number listed when he was booked in jail on the previous charges.

“Detective Christopher Tate (of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office) and probation officer Jay Haak worked extremely hard on this case,” Hebert said. “Of course, the true credit goes to these five brave young girls who were willing to come forward and speak out about what happened.”

“It is a terribly difficult thing to do and required a great deal of courage on their part.”