A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer, Aaron Thomas Mitchell, was sentenced to 27 years in prison for abducting a 15-year-old female middle school student, driving her to his apartment, and repeatedly sexually assaulting her.
According to the evidence presented at trial, Mitchell found the child waiting for school to start, introduced himself as a law enforcement officer, and ordered the child into his car. Mitchell then restrained the child’s hands and feet with handcuffs and drove her nearly an hour away to his apartment.
At his apartment, Mitchell forced the victim into his bedroom, where he repeatedly sexually assaulted her over the course of several hours, before he returned the victim to an alley near the middle school.
An examination of Mitchell’s cellphone revealed that he conducted numerous searches regarding rape, how to stop someone from screaming, and how long it takes to smother someone.