A man out of custody while waiting to be sentenced in September on a federal charge for trying to arrange to have sex with a 14-year-old girl in Sierra Vista in 2019 is back behind bars for allegedly doing something similar again.
David Andrew Thomas Suitts was booked into the Cochise County jail around 2 a.m. July 24 by Sierra Vista Police Det. Joshua Nicola on two Class 3 felonies – sexual conduct with a minor and portraying himself as a minor on the internet.
He is being held in lieu of a $100,000 bond following an initial court appearance.
Court records detailing Suitts’ latest arrest were not available over the weekend, but the more immediate concern for Suitts, 29, is whether the new charges will impact his Sept. 24 sentencing at the U.S. District Court in Tucson on the 2019 federal charge.
In May, Suitts pleaded guilty to Attempted Travel With Intent to Engage In Illicit Sexual Activity as part of a non-trial resolution with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The plea agreement includes Suitts’ on-the-record admission that on Nov. 9, 2019 he started an instant messaging chat with an individual he thought was a 14-year-old girl.
Instead, Suitts was messaging an agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
“Using both the instance messaging application and then my phone, I initiated sexually explicit chats with the girl who I believed to be 14. I asked about her previous sexual experiences and indicated that I wanted to participate in acts of a sexual nature with the underage girl,” the plea agreement states.
But when Suitts arrived at a Sierra Vista location “for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts” he was met by HSI agents. A review of Suitts’ web history later revealed several videos links to child pornography, according to the agreement.
A condition of the federal plea agreement calls for U.S. District Judge Scott Rash to impose a sentence somewhere between 4 and 10 years in the Federal Bureau of Prisons. However, that deal is contingent on Suitts not committing “any other federal, state, or local crimes” after the plea deal was signed in May.
Suitts is expected to have a status hearing with a magistrate in the 2019 case once the federal court is advised of the new arrest. His bond could be reset as a no-bail order if the magistrate finds Suitts needs remain in custody pending full resolution of the federal and state cases.
Court records show Suitts completed a three-year term of probation in 2019, just weeks before his November 2019 arrest by HSI agents. The probation stemmed from a Cochise County case for which Suitts was sentenced in June 2016 for a conviction involving the fraudulent use of a credit card.
LEARN MORE: Federal Trial Date For Sierra Vista Man Accused Of Seeking Sex With Minor
