ORLANDO, Fla. — A 19-year-old college student studying aeronautical science drove his BMW sport-utility vehicle from Daytona Beach to Sanford on Wednesday in hopes of having sex with two little girls with their father’s consent, police said. Instead, Harris M. Carvel got a lesson in undercover sex stings.
- ERAU student accused of traveling for child sex
- Sophomore faces second-degree felony
- New York man brought condoms, candy to meeting
Carvel, a student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, chatted online Tuesday with an FBI agent posing as a father offering his daughters, ages 9 and 11, to strangers seeking sex, police said.
Sanford officers arrested Carvel on one count of obscene communication – traveling to meet after use of a computer to lure a child. The charge is a second-degree felony, which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
He entered a plea of not guilty.
Carvel lives in Fairport, New York, a historic village on the Erie Canal about nine miles southeast of Rochester.
Ginger Pinholster, the assistant vice president of news and research communications at Embry-Riddle, told Spectrum News 13 that Carvel is a sophomore at ERAU studying aeronautical science.
“We are just now learning of this situation and have requested the police report,” Pinholster said. “Once they have official law enforcement information in hand, ERAU leadership will decide what steps to take.”
In Tuesday’s chat on the Kik messenger application, the agent offered Carvel “Family fun. I am a dad with young daughters,” Carvel’s arrest report said.
Asked whether he would be interested in having sex with them, Carvel said, “Kind of yes,” according to the report.
“The details of the case and the intent of Harris Carvel are nothing short of disgusting,” Sanford Police Chief Cecil Smith said in a statement: “I commend the undercover FBI Agent, and our Investigator William Erwin, in their efforts to protect our children, while having to continually be exposed to the sickness of individuals such as Carvel. Intended acts such as these, against our most innocent of victims, will always be a shock to my senses.”
Carvel and the agent discussed specific sexual acts he should expect, and they arranged a meeting time and location, a gas station off State Road 46 near the Seminole Towne Center mall.
Carvel arrived on time — 5:30 p.m. Wednesday — in his white BMW and sent a message to the fictional dad, saying he arrived at the gas station.
The Sanford Police Neighborhood Response Unit approached Carvel, removed him from his vehicle and told him his rights, a report said.
“Mr. Carvel advised that he was not here for sex, but to stop the father of the children from letting the children be sexually abused,’’ his arrest report said. “Further into questioning, Mr. Carvel admitted to the fact that he did travel from Daytona Beach to Sanford to engage in sexual contact with the children.”
He agreed to let the officers search his BMW. They found and seized his cellphone. They also found a Walgreen’s bag with condoms and Jolly Rancher candies on the floor of the front passenger floorboard, investigators said.
He was allowed to make a call and contacted his mother. “During this phone conversation, he again admitted to his actions,” the report said.
He was booked into the John E. Polk Correctional Facility in Sanford. He was released after posting a $50,000 bond.