YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - A judge has declared a Warren man to be a sex offender and sentenced him to jail after being caught in an undercover child sex sting set up by police.

Mahoning County Judge Anthony D'Apolito sentenced 23-year-old Gabriel Talanca to nine months in jail after he was convicted on two counts of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles and four counts of importuning.

Under Ohio law, importuning is soliciting someone for a sex act.

In addition to the jail sentence, the judge declared that Talanca to be a Tier One sex offender, which requires him to register his address with law enforcement authorities once a year for the next fifteen years.

Talanka was arrested at his East Avenue home in February by Warren police, State Troopers, and Mahoning County Sheriff's Deputies after being indicted by the Mahoning County Grand Jury.

The indictment followed a month-long investigation in which an Austintown Police Officer posed as a 15-year-old boy on a dating app.

Police say Talanca first contacted the undercover officer in mid-December and continued to text sexually explicit conversations seeking nude photos and a meeting with the person posing as the teen.

The undercover officer says in the police report that even though he made it clear to Talanca on several occasions that he was only 15-years-old, the conversations continued.

At one point, police say Talanca texted, "Remember, you're 15. If you did something with me and people found out I could go to prison for a long time."

The officer called for help from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation to help identify Talanca as the suspect.