An airman who enticed a 14-year-old girl from Iowa to Georgia, taking her to the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coca-Cola and then engaging in illegal sex, was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison this week.
Senior Airman Gary Archer, stationed at Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, could have received 30 years to life in prison, but the federal judge in Cedar Rapids deviated from the harsher sentencing guidelines, according to an Eastern Iowa News Now report. Archer entered a guilty plea in April.
An AJC review of court documents earlier this year revealed Archer allegedly began the affair with the teen in May 2010, when he was 28. The sexual assault was discovered later in August when the girl from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, told her doctor’s nurse what had happened.
Prosecutors say Archer went to great lengths to hide his relationship with the teenager, which began online and led to sex in Iowa, south Georgia and Atlanta. The child told investigators Archer knew her real age all along.
According to court documents, Archer rented a car in Valdosta in May 2010 and drove 1,100 miles to the girl’s Cedar Rapids home. She told her father she was going camping with friends but instead went with Archer to a local hotel, where they had sex several times during a weeklong stay.
After Archer returned to Georgia, they exchanged sexual pictures and used webcams for online video chats, the investigation said.
Archer then helped the girl concoct a story about a friend in Georgia who was ill, investigators said. Prosecutors say he phoned the girl’s father, claiming to be the sick friend’s uncle. Archer also allegedly used a cell phone application that distorted his voice to call the father, pretending to be the sick girl’s mother.
The father fell for the ruse and allowed his daughter to make the trip to Georgia, according to court documents.
She took a United Airlines flight to Atlanta on July 2, 2010. For the rest of month, court records say, the girl stayed with Archer at his apartment near Moody's in Valdosta and they had sex numerous times.
Archer drove the girl to Atlanta on July 30, 2010, took her sightseeing, and then checked into a hotel, according to court records. She flew home the next day.
After returning to Cedar Rapids, the girl complained of stomach pains. When her father took her to the doctor, she confided in a nurse that she had been sexually active with an adult from Georgia, authorities said.
In October 2010, Air Force investigators searched Archer’s apartment, seizing computer equipment, cell phones and bank and credit card statements. Authorities arrested him on Jan. 31, 2011.
In April, Archer pleaded guilty to one count each of interstate travel to engage in illicit sexual activity and transporting a minor in interstate commerce with the intent to engage in unlawful sexual activity. He faced up to 30 years on the first count and 10 to life on the second.
According to a report on the Eastern Iowa News Now website, Archer held his head down Wednesday when U.S. District Chief Judge Linda Reade announced the sentence. The prosecutor, Pete Deegan, had asked for a much stiffer punishment, but the judge deemed it too harsh.
Archer told the court he was lonely and depressed when he met the girl, whom he described as smart and funny, according to the East Iowa News Now report. He said they “connected immediately.” The girl told the court Archer shouldn’t be “put away forever.”
In addition to the 14-year sentence and having to register as a sex offender, Archer will face 10 years of supervised probation.
-- Staff writer Alan Judd contributed to this report.
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