A federal jury in Los Angeles issued a ruling on Thursday convicting a former U.S. Marines captain of "sex tourism" for traveling to Southeast Asia for the purpose of molesting children.
Michael Joseph Pepe was convicted on two federal counts each of travel with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct and crossing state lines with the intent to engage in sexual acts with a person under the age of 12, according to the L.A. U.S. Attorney's office.
Pepe, 67, was convicted under a federal law prohibiting U.S. citizens from engaging in sexual conduct with minors while traveling internationally.
Though he was initially sentenced in 2014 to life in prison for sexually assaulting girls aged 9 to 13 in Cambodia, that conviction was overturned on appeal in 2018.
City News Service reported that eight young Cambodian women testified against Pepe at his trial in L.A. Pepe was reportedly working as a teacher in their country at the time the crimes were committed. They alleged he drugged, bound, beat, and raped them at a villa he owned in the capital city of Phnom Penh.
Pepe was arrested by Cambodian police in 2006 following a tip. Officers rescued three girls aged 9, 10, and 11 from his home, and uncovered of a cache of hundreds of pornographic images, drugs, discarded children's clothes and ropes used for binding. He was extradited to the United States a year later.
The defense's case rested on whether Pepe could be said to have permanently relocated to Cambodia, or was "traveling" there for extended periods of time. Assistant U.S. Attorney Damaris Diaz told the jury in opening statements that Pepe returned to the U.S. twice in 2005, through L.A., and returned to Cambodia not because it was his home, but because it served as a hunting ground where he could predate on vulnerable children.
Pepe previously attributed his behavior to brain damage suffered while serving in the military, as well as "psychotic effects" from withdrawal from certain medications.
Pepe faces the possibility of life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 6.