Five of eight defendants arrested during a Prattville Police Department undercover operation in March saw cash restrictions taken off their bond requirements.

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Patrick Murry
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Walter Whiddon

In March, the Prattville Police Department arrested eight men from across Alabama and Wisconsin during an undercover operation. Walter Whiddon, 34, of Dadeville; Tavares Murphy, 22, of Wetumpka; Patrick Murry, 47, of Montgomery; Isaiah Smith, 30, of Alabaster; Cenen Barrera, 22, of Montgomery; Owen Strizic, 48, of Platteville, Wisconsin; Austin Kinsey, 25, of Prattville; and Juan Quintero-Caudillo, 35, of Montgomery were booked into the Elmore County Jail on March 31. 

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Cenen Barrera
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Isaiah Smith

All were charged with electronic solicitation of a child and traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act. Barrera was also charged with third-degree escape. All had bonds of $90,000 cash while Barrera’s was $105,000.

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Austin Kinsey
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Owen Strizic

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Barrera, Kinsey, Murphy, Murray and Smith went before Elmore County District Court Judge Glen Goggans Wednesday and waived their preliminary hearings. They also requested the cash restriction be removed from the bonds. Goggans granted the request.

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Juan Quintero-Caudillo

According to the incident reports included in court records, the defendants were identified during an undercover operation designed to arrest individuals who solicit children, in this case undercover chat operatives posing as 15-year-old children for the purpose of engaging in unlawful sex acts.

“They believed the children to be under the age of 16 and at least three years younger than the defendant," the report states. “(The) defendant communicated via text messages.”

The messages include agreements to engage in sexual acts in exchange for money.

The defendants then traveled to the Prattville hotel and were arrested.

It is a similar operation the Autauga County Sheriff’s Office conducted in November where 15 men were arrested. They were also charged with human trafficking.

Whiddon was out of the Tallapoosa County Jail on a $2,500 bond for trafficking opium following a March 2023 arrest.

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