Sep 19, 2018 2:09 PM

DIY Gun Activist Cody Wilson Accused of Child Sexual Assault

A Texas court issued a warrant for the Defense Distributed founder's arrest on Wednesday.

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Update: 11:30 am EDT 9/21/18 BuzzFeed News reports Wilson has been arrested in Taiwan.

Cody Wilson, the founder of Defense Distributed who is best known for making the world’s first fully 3-D-printed gun, has been accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl. On Wednesday, the District Court in Travis County, Texas, issued an arrest warrant for Wilson on charges of sexual assault, a second-degree felony.

According to Commander Troy Officer of the Austin Police Department, Wilson's last known location was Taipei, Taiwan. Before leaving the US, Officer said, Wilson "was informed by a friend of the victim that she had spoken to police, and police were investigating him for having sex with a minor." Wilson has since missed a return flight to the United States, according to police.

"A warrant has been issued, and Mr. Wilson’s name entered into the national law enforcement computer for sexual assault of a child," Officer told reporters at a press conference Wednesday. "We’re also working with national and international law enforcement partners to locate him and bring him to justice."

According to the affidavit of the arrest warrant, which was obtained by WIRED, a juvenile female under the age of 17 alleges that Wilson, age 30, sexually assaulted her in a hotel on August 15 and then paid her $500. In Texas, the age of consent is 17. Austin police later confirmed the girl was 16. In an interview with investigators at the Center for Child Protection on August 27, the unnamed accuser said she met Wilson through the website SugarDaddyMeet.com. Wilson allegedly went by the name of “Sanjuro” on the site. The two exchanged messages on the site, and then exchanged phone numbers and spoke by text message.

“Sanjuro” identified himself as Wilson, according to the affidavit, and allegedly told the girl during their chats that he was “a big deal.” She told police she didn’t recognize the name, so she researched Wilson online. She told investigators they later set up a time to meet in person.

On August 15, she said, they met in the parking lot of a coffee shop in Austin. Video surveillance footage seen by the police confirms the alleged victim was there at approximately 8:09 pm. She told investigators that Wilson arrived in a black Ford Edge SUV---the same make and model as a vehicle registered to Wilson’s 3-D-printed gun company, according to police.

According to Officer, the detectives who met with the alleged victim said it was unlikely anyone would mistake her for an adult. "In their opinion, if someone mistakes her age it would be because someone thinks she’s younger, not older, than the 16 year-old she is," Officer said.

The victim stated that the two then drove to the Archer Hotel and entered a room, which police say they corroborated with surveillance footage and hotel records. Once in the room, the victim told investigators, she and Wilson engaged in sexual intercourse and oral sex, after which Wilson paid her $500. She said the two left the hotel and that Wilson dropped her off at a Whataburger the same night.

Wilson did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

Wilson previously gained international attention, including coverage by WIRED, for his work to bring 3-D-printed guns into the mainstream. When the State Department demanded in 2013 that Wilson remove his printable-gun blueprints from his website or risk violating federal export controls, he complied. Then, he took the government to court, arguing that the blueprints were simply a form of speech, protected by the First Amendment.

"If code is speech, the constitutional contradictions are evident," Wilson told WIRED at the time. "So what if this code is a gun?”

This summer, the Justice Department settled the case, giving Wilson license to continue publishing the blueprints. It was only after the settlement that Wilson relaunched his online repository of blueprints. In August, after a district court judge in Seattle ordered an injunction against the sharing of 3-D-printed gun blueprints online, Wilson announced he would begin selling the blueprints instead. His argument: While the injunction prevented him from giving the specs away for free, it didn’t forbid him from selling them.

Police are now encouraging anyone who might have information about the case to reach out. They are working with United States Marshals to locate Wilson.

Andy Greenberg contributed reporting.

Update: 3:45 pm ET 9/19/2018 This story has been updated to include additional comment from the Austin Police Department.