Bella Vista man pleads guilty in federal court

BENTONVILLE -- A Bella Vista man has pleaded guilty Friday to transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

Cameron Nathaniel Robinson, 21, entered the plea in federal court in Muskogee, Okla., according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

U.S. Magistrate Kimberly E. West accepted the plea and ordered a presenting report.

Robinson was arrested in April after Bella Vista police found him with a missing Westville, Okla., girl.

Oklahoma authorities called Bella Vista police in April and asked them to go to a home on Salsbury Drive to look for a Toyota Yaris seen in video during the search for the missing girl. The Yaris wasn't at the house, but people in the house told officers Robinson and the girl were there earlier and were expected to return, according to a news release.

Police later found Robinson and the girl at the house, according to the release.

Robinson told police he met the girl on the dating application Jaumo. Robinson said the pair exchanged telephone numbers and began to text each other, according to the affidavit.

Robinson said he drove to Westville to meet her. He picked her up about a mile from her home. They returned to his home, and she stayed the night with him. He admitted to police he had sex with her, according to the affidavit.

Robinson told police he didn't know the girl was 14, but he also didn't think she was 18 when she got in his car, according to the affidavit. Robinson said he thought the girl could be 18 because people who create profiles on the dating app are suppose to be 18, according to the affidavit.

Robinson is charged in Benton County with two counts of sexual assault and sexual indecency with a child. He previously pleaded not guilty to the charges.

NW News on 09/21/2019

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