'I did it all dad': 21-yr-old Mobile man who sodomized two preteen boys pleads guilty to producing child porn
SARALAND, ALABAMA: A 21-year-old man entered a guilty plea to two counts of production of child pornography. As per United States Attorney Richard W Moore of the Southern District of Alabama, he faces a minimum mandatory sentence of fifteen years in prison and a maximum of 60 years. According to court documents filed in connection with his guilty plea, Sean Michael Howell was the manager at a roller skating rink in Saraland and met two pre-adolescent boys through his work.
Offering free skating, he lured the boys to stay after the rink shut down and would regularly engage in sex acts with them. He also took the two boys to a motel in Mobile and sodomized the victims there. As per the documents, one of the boys opened up about the abuse to his mother after which the Saraland Police Department took a statement from Howell.
The defendant's cell phone was seized and searched. Several sexually explicit photos of adolescent and pre-adolescent boys were found. Howell admitted to engaging in sex acts with the children and to photographing those acts. Not only photos, but several recordings of video chats were also found with as-yet-unidentified pre-pubescent boys while performing sexually explicit actions. The videos also documented the abuse of the two boys from the skating rink.
The case first came to light when Howell was arrested by Saraland Police Department on December 16, 2018. According to an August 29, 2019 order, Howell was committed for a period of time not to exceed four months to “determine whether there is a substantial probability that in the foreseeable future he will attain the capacity to permit the trial to proceed.” In a recorded phone call with his father, he said, “I did it all, Dad. They saw the videos.” Senior Judge Callie VS Granade accepted the guilty plea and Howell will be sentenced on February 10, 2021.
As per FOX 10 News, he was already charged with ten counts of sex-related crimes with minors, including sodomy and sexual abuse, in 2019. The report read, “He remains in jail on a $375,000 bond. Police reports show Howell was arrested at 531 Saraland Boulevard South, which is listed as Skateland of Saraland and a sign says Rambo's Skateland.”
Earlier, he was reported to be ‘mentally incompetent’ to stand trial on federal charges. In 2019, he indicted and the filing stated, “the Court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the Defendant is presently suffering from a mental disease or defect rendering him mentally incompetent to the extent that he is unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him or to assist properly in his defense.” It was followed by a mental evaluation performed by a doctor at the Federal Detention Center in Houston.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals, federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.
This case was investigated by the Saraland Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.