[Update] 3D printed gun advocate arrested, released on bond

HOUSTON — Cody Wilson, the owner of a Texas company that sells plans to make untraceable 3-D printed guns is free on bond after being accused by authorities of having sex with an underage girl. Jail records show 30-year-old Wilson was freed Sunday evening from the Harris County Jail in Houston after posting a $150,000 bond. Wilson was brought back to the U.S. after being arrested in Taiwan following accusations he paid a 16-year-old girl $500 to have sex with her in Austin. He was arrested Friday in Taiwan.

Wilson’s attorney, Samy Khalil, said in a statement Sunday night that the focus is on preparing Wilson’s defence.

In a court filing, Detective Shaun Donovan said Wilson had sex with the girl at an Austin hotel last month. A counsellor for the teenager reported the accusation to Austin police a week later. He said Wilson met the girl through the website SugarDaddyMeet.com, where she had created an online profile. The girl reported she received images of Wilson’s genitalia and sent a picture of herself naked, according to the affidavit. 

On Aug. 15, they met in the parking lot of an Austin coffee shop before they drove to the hotel. The girl told investigators that he paid her $500 after they had sex and then dropped her off at a Whataburger restaurant. Video surveillance shows Wilson and the youth getting out of a vehicle at the hotel and then exiting an elevator together on the seventh floor, Donovan wrote. The footage shows them returning to the elevator later that night. Hotel records revealed that Wilson registered the same room that the girl reported he had sex with her, the detective wrote.

“My detectives have interviewed and (spoken) with this victim,” Officer said. “In their opinion, if someone mistakes her age it would be because they think she’s younger, not older than the 16 year old that she is.”

He’s is identified in the affidavit as the owner of Austin-based Defence Distributed. After a federal court barred him from posting the printable gun blueprints online for free last month, he announced he had begun selling them for any amount of money to U.S. customers through his website. The states sued to stop an agreement that the government reached with Defence Distributed, arguing that the blueprints for how to print plastic guns could be obtained by felons or terrorists.