Glendon Arnold Carpenter Jr. sentenced to 20 years in prison

A Kentucky man convicted of snatching a 14-year-old girl from Lee County to engage in sexual activity in 2023 has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.

Glendon Arnold Carpenter, Jr. of Lexington was sentenced last week to serve 240 months in prison for unlawfully transporting a minor across state lines with intent to engage in sexual activity, the United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Alabama announced.

The judge also ordered that Carpenter remain on supervised release for life following his prison term. On Feb. 12, Carpenter pleaded guilty to the charge, and federal inmates are not eligible for parole.

Carpenter was first arrested and charged with kidnapping a minor, first-degree sexual abuse and second-degree rape on July 26, 2023. According to the news release from US Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Alabama, court records showed that in 2023, Carpenter began communicating with a 14-year-old girl in Lee County through an online messaging app.

According to a news release from the Lee County Sheriff's Office following the arrest, Carpenter's profile had a picture of what appeared to be a teenage boy. After establishing a relationship with the victim, Carpenter convinced her to leave home, according to the US Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Alabama.

In July of 2023, Carpenter traveled to Alabama to pick up the 14-year-old and take her back to Kentucky where the two engaged in sexual activity, authorities said. Authorities said that the victim's parents reported her missing from her Phenix City home on July 25. Agents located Carpenter and the victim in Kentucky within two days at a fast food restaurant in Richmond, Kent., according to authorities

A federal grand jury indicted Carpenter for unlawfully transporting a minor across state lines in August 2023. On Feb. 12 Carpenter pleaded guilty to the charge.

The FBI Mobile Field Office and the Lee County Sheriff's Office investigated this case, with assistance from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Richmond Police Department and the FBI Louisville Field Office. Assistant US Attorney Tara S. Ratzd prosecuted the case.