LEXINGTON, Neb. -- 58-year-old David Mark Platt, formerly of Washington state, was sentenced on Tuesday to 29 years in prison.

Platt was sentenced on May 28, 2024, in federal court in Lincoln for one count of transporting a to engage in illegal sexual activity.

Platt was sentenced Platt to 348 months in prison. He was further sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release following his release from prison. There is no parole in the federal system. Platt was also ordered to pay $29,000 in restitution.

In Spring of 2022, Platt met a 15-year-old through social media website where the victim was posting about wanting to run away from home. Platt made a plan to pick up the victim from California and travel across the country with them in his semi-truck.

The victim told Platt their age throughout conversations with him on social media. On May 12, 2022, Platt picked up the victim and shortly thereafter the victim was reported missing by their family.

On May 15, 2022, Platt’s semi-truck was pulled over by law enforcement near Lexington and the victim was identified as a passenger. During the stop, Platt admitted to touching the victim in a sexual manner.

The victim was taken to a child advocacy center, where they disclosed that Platt had sexually assaulted them each day of the four-day trip. The victim told the same information to a medical examiner.

Search warrant results from the social media platform where Platt and victim communicated revealed that the victim did inform Platt of their age, that he expected the to have sexual intercourse with him, the plan for picking the victim up and traveling, and other various things he expected of the victim.

The search warrant results additionally showed Platt’s sexual preference for preteen to teenage girls and his pattern in attempting to find a child to travel with him for sex and his preference for BDSM sexual relationships.

In 2012, Platt was found guilty of sexual assault in violation of Texas Penal Code § 22.011(a)(1) which is a felony in the second degree. He was on the sex offender registry at the time of the crime in this case.

This case was investigated by the Nebraska State Patrol and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.