A man who transported a minor across a state line to engage in sex acts pled guilty on November 3, 2014, in federal court in Cedar Rapids.

Christopher Heath-Lowther, age 30, from Platteville, Wisconsin, was convicted of one count of transporting a minor across a state line with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and one count of traveling across a state line for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct.

At the plea hearing, Heath-Lowther admitted that, between December 2013 and February 2014, he traveled from Wisconsin to Iowa for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct and transported a minor from Iowa to Wisconsin with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Heath-Lowther was taken into custody by the United States Marshal after the guilty plea and will remain in custody pending sentencing. Heath-Lowther faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of life imprisonment, a $500,000 fine, a $200 special assessment, and at least five years and up to life on supervised release following any imprisonment.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Platteville, Wisconsin, Police Department, and the Maquoketa Police Department.

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. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is CR 14-1014.