Texas Man Guilty of Federal Child Sex Offense

            Fayetteville, Arkansas – Kenneth Elser, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, announced that Shilo Watts age 40 of New Braunfels, Texas appeared today in The United States District Court in Fayetteville before The Honorable Timothy L. Brooks and pleaded guilty to the charge of Interstate Transportation of a Minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2423(a).

            According to court records, on or about October of 2012, Special Agents with the Homeland Security Office in San Antonio, Texas, began investigating the sexual abuse of a minor Marshallese male living in Northwest Arkansas by Shilo Watts. Based on this investigation, Homeland Security Agents were able to determine that Watts had lived in the Marshall Islands for several years, and had helped bring several young Marshallese males to the United States. A subsequent interview of one of the minors revealed that WATTS began sexually abusing him at a young age and continued when the minor was living in Springdale, Arkansas. Specifically, the minor stated that between 2008 and 2012, Watts would take him and other young men from Arkansas to a residence in Texas. On at least one occasion, Watts sexually abused the minor while there.

            The charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years imprisonment and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Sentencing will be held on a later date. 

            This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigation and the Springdale Police Department.  Assistant United States Attorney Dustin Roberts is prosecuting the case for the United States.

            The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and their Criminal Division Child Exploitation and Obscenity Sections (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

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Related court documents may be found on Public Access to Electronic Records Website @www.Pacer.gov