A Long Beach man was sentenced Wednesday to eight years behind bars for traveling with a 14-year-old runaway -- whom he met in an internet forum -- across state lines to his apartment, where he engaged in sexual activity with her.
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Trevon Langstaff, 34, pleaded guilty last year in Los Angeles federal court to one count of traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct.
In late March 2024, Langstaff drove from his Long Beach home to Peoria, Arizona, to pick up the underage girl, according to his plea agreement. Langstaff knew the girl was 14 and told her to pretend to be 18 years old, prosecutors said.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the defendant brought the girl from Arizona to his home in Long Beach. Prosecutors say that on his phone, law enforcement found an image that appeared to portray two children engaged in sexually explicit activity.
An affidavit filed with the complaint says the teen was reported missing from home in March 2024. The girl's family searched the neighborhood and reached out to her friends, only to learn she had planned to run away, court papers show.
The teenager also told a friend that she had met a man who took in runaways and currently had two other kids staying with him, and that he would give her a phone and a room in which to stay, the affidavit states.
The victim and Langstaff met on a Reddit internet forum about runaways. A search of phone records revealed numerous contacts between the victim and Langstaff.
When law enforcement visited Langstaff's Long Beach apartment to locate and rescue the victim, the teen was found hidden in a closet.
Court papers state the teen said she and Langstaff engaged in sexual contact after arriving at his apartment.
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