Hastings man going to prison for sex crime against minor

HASTINGS, Neb. (KSNB) - An Adams County judge Monday sentenced a Hastings man to prison for attempted first-degree sexual assault.

Court records show police arrested 24-year-old Lane Wecker after a state referral involving a girl between 14 and 18 years old. Wecker had been convicted of a similar crime in Dawson County.

An arrest affidavit shows a Hastings woman found her teenage daughter with a 24-year-old male, but he fled the home. Hastings Police also claimed that Wecker admitted to going to the victim’s home and having sex with her.

Wecker told police he knew it was wrong because of the girl’s age and said he didn’t know if the victim consented because she did not say anything to him during the incident. Wecker also sent sexually suggestive messages to the victim.

Wecker is a registered sex offender.

According to Dawson County District Court documents, Wecker was convicted of attempted first-degree sexual assault of a child in March of 2020.

That came after the original charge of first-degree sexual assault of a child was reduced in a plea after he pleaded guilty to the crime that happened in 2018.

He was sentenced to serve four to six years in the Dawson County case and was placed on the sex offender registry for 25 years. He was paroled in April 2022 from Tecumseh State Correctional Institution.

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