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Carbon teen gets jail term for corruption of a minor

A Carbon County teen, who admitted having a then 13-year-old girl perform a sex act on him, was sentenced to a county prison term on Monday in the county court.

Christopher Jon Schnell Jr., 19, of Lehighton, previously pleaded guilty to one count of corruption of a minor, as a felony three, and was sentenced by Judge Steven R. Serfass to serve nine to one day less 24 months in prison followed by one year of probation.Lehighton police charged Schnell with having the sexual contact with the girl at a home in the borough on Dec. 29, 2015.At the time of the plea Schnell told Serfass that when the girl began to perform the sex act, he realized it was wrong and had her stop. He said the entire incident only took a minute or less.Because the charge fell under the provisions of Megan's Law, Schnell was evaluated by the state sexual offenders assessment board which determined he was not a sexual violent predator, meaning he avoided registering for life as a sexual offender.However, Serfass ruled he must register for the next 15 years as a sexual offender. Additionally, Serfass ordered Schnell to have no contact with the victim, get a mental health evaluation, get a sexual offender evaluation, pay court costs of about $1,000 and pay a $50 per month supervision fee.He will begin the jail term at 9 a.m. Aug. 19.