A Jacksonville husband and wife have both plead guilty for their role in the sex trafficking of a child in exchange for illegal drugs.
Samuel Christopher Templeman, 46, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to sex traffic a child. His wife, Deborah Lynn Templeman, 50, has pleaded guilty to possession of child sex abuse material, according to court documents.
In 2018, investigators say Samuel Templeman and the victim began regularly using heroin and crack cocaine together. Around that time, a pimp began asking the child victim to engage in various sexual acts in exchange for drugs, according to the plea agreements.
In July 2019, a court terminated the Templemans’ custodial rights over the victim and ordered them not to have any contact with the child. The child was then placed in foster care, from which investigators say the child ran away.
A month later, Samuel Templeman received a sizable inheritance, which the Templemans used to lure the child back. By mid-October 2019, court documents reveal the Templemans had spent all the money, primarily on drugs for Samuel Templeman and the victim.
According to federal investigators, once the inheritance was gone, the couple again began sex trafficking the child. The Templemans’ spent most of that money on drugs and the rest on living expenses.
In December 2019, a detective from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office went to Deborah Templeman’s job to in an attempt to locate the victim. The detective overheard phone conversations in which Samuel Templeman told his wife that he was taking the victim on a “date,” a common slang term for an appointment for the child to perform sex acts in exchange for money.
When Samuel Templeman later arrived at Deborah Templeman’s workplace, he was taken into custody and the child victim was rescued.
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