Log In


Reset Password
  • MENU
    Nation
    Wednesday, April 24, 2024

    Owner of 3D-printed gun company accused of sex with minor

    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)

    DALLAS (AP) — The owner of a Texas company that is being sued by several states over its plan to disseminate blueprints for making untraceable 3D-printed guns is wanted on an arrest warrant over an allegation that he had sex with an underage girl and paid her $500 afterward.

    Austin police Cmdr. Troy Officer said at a news conference Wednesday that Cody R. Wilson was scheduled to fly back to the U.S. from Taipei, Taiwan, but he didn't board the plane. He said his department is working with national and international law enforcement to try to locate Wilson, who didn't reply to a phone message from The Associated Press seeking comment.

    Officers 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 girl told Wilson that police were investigating her claim that he had sex with her.

    In a court filing, Detective Shaun Donovan says Wilson had sex with the 16-year-old girl at an Austin hotel on Aug. 15. He says Wilson met the girl through the website SugarDaddyMeet.com, and that 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.

    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.

    Comment threads are monitored for 48 hours after publication and then closed.