DALLAS (AP) — The owner of a Texas company that makes untraceable 3D-printed guns is wanted on an arrest warrant tied to an accusation that he had sex with an underage girl and paid her $500 afterward.
FILE – In this Aug. 1, 2018, file photo, Cody Wilson, with Defense Distributed, holds a 3D-printed gun called the Liberator at his shop in Austin, Texas. Police allege in an affidavit filed Wednesday, Sept. 19, that Wilson had sex with an underage girl and paid her $500 afterward. Austin police Detective Shaun Donovan wrote in a request for a warrant to arrest Wilson on a sexual assault charge. The court filing doesn’t say how old the girl is, but Texas’ age of consent is 17. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
Austin police Cmdr. Troy Officer said Wednesday that the department is working with national and international law enforcement to located Cody R. Wilson, who missed a scheduled flight back to the U.S. from Taiwan. Wilson didn’t reply to a phone message from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Officer reported that Wilson’s last known location was in Taipei, Taiwan. He said it’s unclear why Wilson went to Taiwan, but he is known to travel extensively. He said before Wilson flew there, a friend of the 16-year-old girl informed Wilson that police were investigating the accusation that he had sex with the youth.
In a court filing, Detective Shaun Donovan said Wilson had sex with the girl at an Austin hotel last month. A counselor for the teenager reported the accusation to Austin police a week later. He said Wilson met the girl through the website SugarDaddyMeet.com, where she had created an online profile.
The girl reported she received images of Wilson’s genitalia and sent a picture of herself naked, according to the affidavit.
On Aug. 15, they met in the parking lot of an Austin coffee shop before they drove to the hotel. The girl told investigators that Wilson paid her $500 after they had sex and then dropped her off at a Whataburger restaurant.
Video surveillance shows Wilson and the youth getting out of a vehicle at the hotel and then exiting an elevator together on the seventh floor, Donovan wrote. The footage shows them returning to the elevator later that night.
Hotel records revealed that Wilson registered the same room that the girl reported he had sex with her, the detective wrote.
“My detectives have interviewed and (spoken) with this victim,” Officer said. “In their opinion, if someone mistakes her age it would be because they think she’s younger, not older than the 16 year old that she is.”
Wilson is identified in the affidavit as the owner of Austin-based Defense Distributed. After a federal court barred Wilson from posting the printable gun blueprints online for free last month, he announced he had begun selling them for any amount of money to U.S. customers through his website.
The states sued to stop an agreement that the government reached with Defense Distributed, arguing that the blueprints for how to print plastic guns could be obtained by felons or terrorists.
By RYAN TARINELLI
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