RANKIN COUNTY, Miss. (WJTV) – A Pearl man pled guilty to sexual battery of a child under the age of 14.

Madison and Rankin Counties’ District Attorney Bubba Bramlett announced that Lavarias Sherod Chaffee, 32, was sentenced to serve 30 years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) for sexual battery of a minor.

Bramlett said Chaffee will serve 25 years in prison and will have five years of supervised probation. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender, have no contact with the victim and have no unsupervised contact with any child under the age of 18.

On November 15, 2023, Pearl police received a complaint from the victim’s parents. They said their child was communicating with a man in his 30s on social media.

During the investigation, the Mississippi Children’s Advocacy Center interviewed the child and discovered that the defendant drove to the child’s neighborhood in a work truck. Investigators said Chaffee had the minor come out to meet him and had the child perform sexual acts on him in the truck. The victim and other juveniles said Chaffee requested inappropriate images from them.