A California man pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault of a child May 6 in Hardin County.
Dillon Matthew Ellis, 34, was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the 2022 crime.
The Texas Department of Public Safety Criminal Investigations Division, with assistance from the Lumberton Police Department and Texas Rangers, arrested Ellis on Jan. 11, 2022, for charges of trafficking of persons.
According to DPS investigators, Ellis traveled from California to Texas, where he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl and intended to take her back to California.
Ellis, of Newhall, California, used social media to communicate with the child and eventually solicited illicit images. Investigators believe Ellis was actively communicating with at least three other juveniles on social media.
Newhall is the southernmost in the city of Santa Clarita, northwest of Los Angeles.
Lumberton Police Chief Danny Sullins said dispatchers received a report that a vehicle with California license plates was blocking a driveway on Kendrick Lane across from Lumberton Primary School. When officers arrived, they approached the vehicle and discovered Ellis, described as 6 foot tall and weighing 285 pounds, with the 13-year-old girl.
According to Sullins, Ellis told officers he believed the girl was 19 years old.
The girl’s mother was contacted, and Ellis was taken to the police station. He was later booked into the Hardin County Jail on charges of trafficking in persons and interference with child custody. Bond was set at $1 million on each charge by Hardin County Precinct 5 Justice of the Peace Melissa Minton.
Sullins said investigators later discovered Ellis and the girl met on social media and that Ellis had been in Southeast Texas since Jan. 9, 2022. Investigators said Ellis had sexual contact with the 13-year-old over a two-day period.
According to an internet search, a separate alleged victim filed a harassment case against Ellis in Los Angeles County Superior Court in May 2018.