A youthful-looking sex offender who posed as a 12-year-old boy to enroll in several Arizona schools was sentenced to 70.5 years in prison Tuesday.
Neil Havens Rodreick II pleaded guilty last year to seven criminal charges. Most involved child pornography but two stemmed from the charade he pulled off for two years.
Rodreick, 31, didn't speak at his sentencing, shaking his head "no" when Yavapai County Superior Court Judge Thomas Lindberg asked if he had anything to say.
Lindberg told Rodreick that he found his conduct deceitful and appalling and said he should have received an even longer sentence.
Rodreick attended schools in Surprise, Payson and Prescott Valley starting in 2005.
Authorities said he shaved and wore makeup to help him appear younger, convincing teachers, students and administrators that he was a boy named Casey.
He was caught in January 2007 after spending a day in the seventh grade at a Chino Valley school when school officials became suspicious because his birth certificate and other documents looked forged. They had initially thought they might be dealing with a child who had been abducted.
Child pornography found
Authorities didn't find any victims of sexual abuse at the schools Rodreick attended, but they found an extensive collection of child pornography at his home.
Rodreick originally faced 28 counts, but pleaded guilty to only a quarter of them: four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor stemming from the pornography, and one count each of failure to register as a sex offender, fraud and simple assault. The assault charge involved an allegation that he grabbed a girl's buttocks at a school in Prescott Valley with the intent to injure, insult or provoke.
Rodreick was arrested with Brian J. Nellis, 36, who was posing as his cousin, and two older men posing as their uncle and grandfather.
Nellis, Lonnie Eugene Stiffler, 63, and Robert James Snow, 46, were indicted on various charges, including child pornography and forgery. Nellis and Snow, both convicted sex offenders, were also charged with failing to register with authorities.
Stiffler was sentenced Tuesday to 14 years in prison, and Snow received 22 years. Nellis was sentenced last month to 51 years in prison with no chance of parole.
Before coming to Arizona, Rodreick was convicted in Oklahoma of lewdly propositioning a 6-year-old boy in 1996. He served about six years in prison.
