Hagerstown man charged with sex crimes declared incompetent to stand trial
A Hagerstown man charged with sexual solicitation of a minor and child pornography offenses on accusations he exchanged sexually explicit photos with a preteen girl in Minnesota almost two years ago has been found incompetent to stand trial.
Edward Lee Wise Jr., 21, was found Aug. 23 to be incompetent to stand trial because of a mental disorder, according to Washington County Circuit Court records.
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Some of the charges against Wise were changed through a July 2021 criminal information filing on his case.
He's now facing one felony count of sexual solicitation of a minor instead of four counts. Wise also is charged with three felony charges of soliciting a minor to engage as a subject in production of obscene material.
Each of those four felonies has a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Wise also is charged with four counts of possessing child pornography and three counts of displaying obscene material to a minor, court records state.
He was ordered to be "committed to the Maryland Department of Health until the court is satisfied that the defendant is no longer incompetent to stand trial or is no longer, by reason of a mental disorder or mental retardation, a danger to self or the person or property of another," court records state.
State health officials are to evaluate and develop a treatment plan for Wise, according to the order signed by Judge Mark K. Boyer.
Another competency hearing for Wise is scheduled for late February, according to the online court docket.
Messages left for Wise's public defender were not returned.
What linked Minnesota and Maryland in sex crime case?
In March 2021, the Maryland Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force was notified by authorities in the girl's state, Minnesota, about a child being solicited to provide pornographic photos of herself to Instagram user accounts assigned to a person in Hagerstown, according to the charging document. The information was forwarded to a detective with the Washington County Sheriff's Office.
The exchange of messages and photos took place in late November and early December 2020, the document said. The girl's father accessed her Instagram account, downloaded the information and sent it to authorities.
The materials included sexually explicit messages between Wise and the girl and exchanges of sexual photos, including photos of the girl that met Maryland's criteria for child pornography.
In an early message, the girl lied about being 12, but then sent a message admitting her actual age, the document said.
Wise would have been 20 years old at the time of the alleged crimes.
Wise initially told police his Instagram account had been "hacked" and that he also let a relative of a friend use his cellphone, the document said. He later told investigators he met the girl through an app called Movie Star Planet 2 and their communications later moved from there to Instagram, the document said.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Hagerstown man declared incompetent to stand trial for sex crimes
