TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — Explicit pictures and video in a donated cell phone led police to arrest a 32-year-old Tacoma man in a child rape case.
The Tacoma News Tribune reports that prosecutors charged Robert Michael Comte this past week with one count of first-degree child rape and one count of first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor after a woman who received a cell phone from a Goodwill found explicit video and pictures of a girl who appears to be between 3 and 5 years old.
Comte plead not guilty Friday and is being held in jail on a $500,000 bail.
Prosecutors allege the man sexually assaulting the child in the video is Comte. Police used information in the phone to track down people who know Comte, including a woman who said the phone belonged to him. That woman tearfully told police Comte had recently baby-sat her daughter.
Police say a blanket seen in the video match a blanket from the woman’s house.