Utah woman posed as babysitter to traffic 8-year-old girl so truck driver could molest her for child porn
WEST VALLEY CITY, UTAH: A truck driver who sexually assaulted a young girl with the help of a woman who posed as a babysitter, and then shared explicit pictures of the child has been convicted of his charges and sentenced to at least 17 years in jail.
Michael Lee Travers, 53, of Diberville, Mississippi, and Kristen Michelle Milsap, 32, of Kearns, Utah, were first brought to the attention of authorities after they received a call from a man in April 2019 informing them he had received a picture of the latter sexually abusing his eight-year-old daughter.
During a subsequent interview at the Children's Justice Center, the child told investigators that Milsap made her do things that made her "uncomfortable," according to court documents obtained by ABC4.
Police discovered during their investigation that Milsap would tell the victim's family that she needed to come with her to the Comfort Inn to help babysit a friend's child, and had done so multiple times. When she got her to the room, she and Travers would sexually assault her and record the act.
When questioned, Milsap admitted she was the woman in the image but insisted she did not take the photos. She claimed Travers had pressured her into touching the girl.
Detectives then found text messages between the pair where Travers had told her he wanted to engage in sexual acts with a child, as well as several images of Milsap sexually abusing the girl as well. They also learned that the 53-year-old, who used to travel to Utah for work, had sent the images to another person.
Travers and Milsap were taken into custody in May 2019 after the former was located in California and the latter was found in Arizona. Both were charged with four first-degree felony counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, while Travers was additionally charged with four second-degree felony counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.
Court documents stated Travers admitted that between January and April of 2019, he knowingly used a child who was eight years old, to produce sexually explicit images that were then “shipped, mailed, or transferred in interstate commerce.”
Two other people were listed in the documents as being "linked" to Travers and Milsap and faced misdemeanor drug charges. However, they were not charged with sexual assault.
This past week Travers was convicted of sexually abusing the girl and was sentenced to 210 months in prison. He had previously struck a plea deal with prosecutors in December that saw him plead guilty to one count of production of child pornography in return for having some of his other charges dropped.
He will also have to serve a lifetime term of supervised release and be listed on the sex offender registry after his release from prison.
Milsap, who has a previous conviction of DUI over an incident where she ran into the back of a vehicle with a variety of prescription drugs in her system, is scheduled to be tried on the same charges at a later date.