Predator Gets 19 Years: Heath-Lowther Sentenced in Iowa Trafficking Case

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA – Christopher Heath-Lowther, a 30-year-old from Platteville, Wisconsin, will spend the next two decades plus behind bars after receiving a sentence of over 19 years in federal prison on February 24, 2015. The sentence stems from his horrific crimes involving the trafficking of a minor across state lines with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

Heath-Lowther pleaded guilty on November 3, 2014, to one count of transporting a minor across a state line with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and one count of traveling across a state line for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct. Court records reveal that between December 2013 and February 2014, Heath-Lowther repeatedly traveled from Wisconsin to Iowa to meet and then transport a 14-year-old female victim back to Wisconsin for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The details of his actions are sickening and demonstrate a calculated disregard for the life and well-being of a child.

The sentencing was handed down in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade. Heath-Lowther received a 235-month imprisonment sentence, along with a $200 special assessment. But prison isn’t the end of it. Following his release, he will be subjected to a 10-year term of supervised release and will be required to fully comply with all sex offender registration and public notification requirements – a small measure of accountability for his monstrous actions.

Federal authorities say this case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel, with critical investigative work conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Platteville, Wisconsin, Police Department, and the Maquoketa Police Department. The collaborative effort brought this predator to justice, but the scars of his crimes will undoubtedly remain.

This case was pursued under the umbrella of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a national initiative launched by the Department of Justice in 2006. PSC aims to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse by pooling federal, state, and local resources to identify, apprehend, and prosecute offenders, and to rescue victims. More information on PSC can be found at www.usdoj.gov/psc.

Court file information, including case number CR 14-1014, is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. Follow the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa on Twitter: @USAO_NDIA.