ROCKPORT, Texas — Former Rockport businessman, David Keith Wills was sentenced to life in federal prison Tuesday for sex trafficking of a minor female. Wills was ordered to pay $172,000 in restitution to the victim and $85,000 in fines for “multiple counts of sex trafficking, enticement of a child and conspiring to obstruct justice.”
The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Corpus Christi, Texas, and assistance from the Brownsville (Texas) Police Department and the Texas Rangers.
Willis was found guilty by a federal jury on August 8, 2019.
According to court documents, the jury found at the trial that from 2012 to 2015 Wills “conspired with his mistress Maria Candelaria Losoya to traffic the minor female for sex beginning when she was just 10 years old. Losoya and Wills used their cell phones to arrange meetings at several different locations where Wills would sexually assault the minor female multiple times until she reported it in April 2015.”
According to the press release from U.S. Immigration and Customs, Wills promised to pay the victim's college tuition if allowed to sexually assault her.
"For three years, this individual preyed on the innocence of our most vulnerable population relying on economic and psychological manipulation to control and silence his victim," said Mark Dawson, special agent in charge, HSI Houston.
The release also states that Wills reimbursed Losoya for gifts to the victim and expenditures.
Authorities say after the victim reported the abuse, Wills “conspired with a friend to remove a laptop from his home, wanting to destroy it to prevent law enforcement from seizing and reviewing it.”
An eyewitness who testified at the trial described seeing the victim at a Portland hotel where Wills and Losoya met in March of 2014.