Florida man pleads guilty to traveling to Vancouver for sex with teen; 'restraints' found in hotel room

VANCOUVER, Wash. - A Florida man has pleaded guilty to multiple sexual abuse charges involving a child after he traveled to Vancouver, Wash. with the intent of engaging in a sexual act with a minor, and produced child pornography.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said 42-year-old Samuel Leonard traveled from New Port Ritchey, Florida, to meet with a 14-year-old girl he spent months "enticing" online for sexual abuse. In his online profiles, Leonard told the teen that he was 20 years old. 

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Leonard contacted the girl via a social media platform around April 1, 2020. Over the next few months, he messaged her on various social media sites and sent her a cell phone so that they could communicate by text and telephone. 

Unbeknownst to the teen girl, Leonard had installed tracking and surveillance software in the phone so that he could monitor her location and read her texts and emails. 

Leonard turned the conversations with the girl to a sexual nature and convinced her to send various sexually explicit photos, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. 

The girl’s guardians became aware of the communication and contacted police in late June 2020. An undercover officer then took over the communication, pretending to still be the 14-year-old girl. 

Leonard traveled from Florida to Vancouver by bus. When he finally arrived at the teen's location, he was seen on surveillance buying another phone, since the undercover officer said that "her" guardians had taken it away. 

He put the phone in a package and tossed it over the fence into the teen's backyard. He was arrested shortly after that. 

When investigators searched his hotel room, they found "a number of items used to restrain someone, such as ten sets of flex cuffs and two sets of metal handcuffs, as well as duct tape and electrical tape," the U.S. Attorney's Office said. He also had various sex toys and lubricants in his room.

As a part of a plea agreement, Leonard also admitted that he traveled to Oklahoma in 2018 to sexually assault a 16-year-old girl. He filmed that assault and videos were found on his phone. 

Production of child pornography is punishable by a mandatory minimum 15 years in prison and up to 30 years in prison. Interstate travel to engage in sex acts with a minor is punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

He will also be required to register as a sex offender. 

He is expected to be sentenced in April.