Houston man traveled to Oklahoma for sexual acts with minor
HOUSTON - Lee Finch II has been sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to charges related to sexual acts with a minor starting when they were 12-years-old.
The 49-year-old from Houston was charged with Coercion and Enticement of a Minor and Travel[ing] with Intent to Engage in Illicit Sexual Conduct and has to serve 15 years in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, according to U.S. District Judge John F. Heil, III. After his prison term, Finch will have to register as a sex offender.
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Finch began coercing and abusing a 12-year-old in June 2016 while she had "sleepovers" at his house, according to court documents. He moved to Houston in September 2016 and would go back to Tulsa to have "sexual intercourse" with the young girl, the U.S. Attorney's Office stated.
The minor briefly lived with the 49-year-old and his family in Houston from June 2017 to February 2018 where the abuse continued until the child moved back to Tulsa. Finch kept abusing the minor through sexually explicit text messages that matched up with flight records back to Tulsa.
According to court records, the minor's mother found the text messages in April 2018 and reported them to the Tulsa Police Department. Finch was charged in December 2018 by the Tulsa County District Court with lewd or indecent proposal to a child and ordered to have no contact with the minor.
Finch still reached out to the minor and encouraged her to lie to law enforcement and continue their "relationship."
As the investigation went on, he was additionally charged with Coercion and Enticement of a Minor and Travel[ing] with Intent to Engage in Illicit Sexual Conduct. He pled guilty to the charges.
The U.S. Attorney's Office says Finch will remain in custody pending transfer to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.