Man tracked 14-year-old’s phone, took bus from Florida to sexually assault her, US feds say

In April 2020, Leonard began messaging the teen over social media and told her he was 20 instead of 39, his true age at the time, according to court documents. — Photo by Myznik Egor on Unsplash

A man is facing at least 15 years in federal prison after prosecutors said he installed tracking software on a teen girl’s phone and rode a bus across the country to sexually assault her.

Samuel Aaron Leonard, 42, of New Port Richey, Florida, was arrested outside the 14-year-old girl’s home in Vancouver, Washington, in July 2020, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.