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SANTA ANA (CNS) - A 26-year-old man was sentenced Monday to two years in federal prison for carrying on a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old Mission Viejo girl with cerebral palsy.
Nathan Keyshawn Williams pleaded guilty Aug. 5 to possession of child pornography. U.S. District Judge James Selna also placed him on lifetime supervised release and recommended placing him in a prison camp. Williams, who is out on bail, must also register as a sex offender and surrender to authorities by May 9.
Williams was indicted in December 2021 on charges of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor, transportation of child pornography and possession of child pornography, according to court records. Prosecutors dismissed the rest of the charges in accordance with his guilty plea to the child porn charge.
Williams traveled from Houston to Los Angeles County on Aug. 26, 2021, to engage in sex with the victim, according to his plea agreement.
After Williams arrived in Los Angeles he went to the victim's high school, picked her up "and took her to a hotel in Los Angeles, where he and (the victim) engaged in illicit sexual conduct," according to the plea agreement.
Orange County sheriff's investigators on Aug. 27, 2021, had sought the public's help in tracking down the girl, who was last seen the day before at Mission Viejo High School. Investigators searched the defendant's cell phone "and found a 17-second video" that showed the victim "naked and engaging in sexual conduct," according to the plea deal.
The victim had been "conversing online through an app called Discord" with Williams, according to Carrie Braun of the Orange County Sheriff's Department, who said in 2021 that investigators determined the suspect "traveled here to meet her and she was picked up ... in a rideshare vehicle."
Hours later, sheriff's investigators tracked down where the two were staying at a motel in Los Angeles, Braun said.
Williams' attorney, Kelly Munoz of the federal Public Defender's Office, asked Selna to sentence her client to "time served," or the four months he spent in Orange County Jail before the case was transferred from state court to federal court.
"The parties generally believed they were in a romantic relationship," Munoz said.
Williams has been diagnosed with autism and was "very inexperienced" when he met the teen, Munoz said. He was also "bullied" as a child due to a lisp and "for praying and studying the Bible," she added.
Williams "never dated anyone" before he met the victim, Munoz said.
The defendant's autism went undiagnosed through his childhood as his family lacked the resources to pursue services, Munoz said.
Authorities did not find any other instances of child pornography on his devices other than the video the victim sent to him on her own, Munoz said. When investigators found the video it was in the defendant's "recycle bin" on his device, she said.
"She cannot consent at 15, which is why he's accepting responsibility," Munoz said.
Munoz said Williams' time behind bars in the county jail was "exceedingly distressing ... due to his autism."
The defense attorney said jail officials failed to diagnose his autism and prescribed "psychotropic drugs" that he sometimes took and refused. Munoz asked for prison camp "due to his autism and age."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Rabbani, who recommended 30 months, agreed with Munoz that it was a "very unusual and difficult case."
The prosecutor said she did not think the defendant was a pedophile or was grooming the victim.
"But he did real harm to the victim in this case," Rabbani said, adding Williams knew what he was doing was wrong.
Rabbani agreed with Munoz that Williams should receive four months credit for his time in the county jail and Selna granted the request.
"I would like to apologize for the mistakes I made," Williams told Selna. "Again, I'm very sorry, sir."
