A Newberg man who traveled around the state taking pornographic photographs of a 12-year-old girl — until he was nabbed by sheriff’s deputies at a Sisters motel — was sentenced to more than six years in prison on Wednesday in Deschutes County Circuit Court.

Rodney Mead Pelling, 68, was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison earlier this month on related charges and later received an additional sentence of six years, three months from a Yamhill County Circuit Court judge.

Prosecutors say Pelling, a golf instructor who once worked as a photographer, traveled around Oregon with the girl and often used her as a subject in sexually explicit photos.

On Wednesday, Deschutes County Chief Deputy District Attorney Darryl Nakahira told a judge the case was opened after the pair traveled to Central Oregon.

In July 2008, Pelling and the girl were staying at the Best Western Ponderosa Lodge in Sisters when staff members observed “concerning” behavior in the pool and in a motel room. They notified the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, which sent deputies to investigate.

Nakahira said the deputies dispatched to the motel found Playboy magazines and other “adult literature” in the room along with a camera containing several sexually explicit photos of the girl.

Investigators from the Oregon State Police, FBI and other agencies later found more photos on Pelling’s computer and determined that they’d been taken in four counties over a 13-month period.

In Deschutes County, Pelling was charged with three counts of first-degree sex abuse and 18 counts of using a child in display of sexually explicit conduct, both felony crimes.

After negotiations between prosecutors and his attorney, Pelling agreed to plead guilty to sex abuse. His sentences from Deschutes and Yamhill counties will be served concurrently with his term in federal prison. He is not eligible for early release.

Before receiving his sentence on Wednesday, Pelling told Judge Stephen Tiktin that he was “deeply sorry” for his actions. He said the combination of medication he was taking for allergies and a tumor in his pituitary gland caused him to act inappropriately.

“I was a different man before I took the medications,” Pelling said. “The man I was when I took the medications, the perfect storm I created in my body, doesn’t exist anymore.”

Tiktin said he didn’t buy the argument, but agreed to follow the 75-month sentencing recommendation of prosecutors and Pelling’s attorney.

“I bring a healthy suspicion to the idea that people who are drinking or using drugs or prescription drugs would get involved in this kind of reprehensible behavior because of the drugs,” he said.