A man accused of kidnapping two Amish sisters from their family's roadside vegetable stand pleaded guilty this morning to all 21 federal charges of child pornography and sexual exploitation of six girls.
Stephen Howells II, 39, admitted he victimized six children from December 2012 through August of last year, when he and his girlfriend, Nicole Vaisey, were charged with kidnapping the Amish sisters in St. Lawrence County.
Howells and Vaisey made child pornography of three girls on nine dates between September 2013 and August 2014, according to a federal grand jury indictment.
Howells alone was charged with making child pornography involving three children on six other dates between December 2012 and April 2014, the indictment said. He was also charged with having child pornography on five hard drives involving children under the age of 12.
Howells faces up to 30 years in prison.
He's expressed a willingness to testify on Vaisey's behalf at her trial, which is scheduled for June 22. Howells is willing to testify that Vaisey was acting under his control in a master-slave relationship, according to a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Howells and Vaisey were arrested Aug. 15, two days after the Amish girls were kidnapped from their family's roadside stand.
The two Amish girls, ages 7 and 12, were abducted from their family's farm stand in the town of Heuvelton. They were returned home about 25 hours later, but in that time they were sexually abused, prosecutors have said.
Police arrested Howells and Vaisey and charged them in state court with two counts of first-degree kidnapping. Those charges are likely to be prosecuted after the federal case is finished, St. Lawrence County District Attorney Mary Rain has said.
Howells and Vaisey lived together in the town of Hermon, 16 miles from where the Amish girls were abducted. Howells, a father of three, worked as registered nurse at Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center in Ogdensburg. Vaisey was a dog groomer. They had met online about a year and a half before.
The search for the girls and their abductors involved hundreds of volunteer firefighters, Department of Environmental Conservation police, sheriff's deputies, state police and FBI investigators.
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