Florida couple pleads guilty to child exploitation charges

Jacksonville, Florida: The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida announced on Thursday, June 24 that Samuel Christopher Templeman and his wife, Deborah Lynn Templeman had each pleaded guilty to child sexual exploitation charges.

Samuel, 46, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to sex traffic a child and faces a possible maximum sentence of life in federal prison.

Deborah, 50, pleaded guilty to possession of child sex abuse material and faces a possible sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison.

A sentencing date has not yet been set.

Back on March 1, 2021 an indictment had been returned which charged Samuel with sex trafficking a child as well as the conspiring charge to which he pleaded guilty. As a part of that indictment Deborah had also been charged with conspiring to sex traffic a child.

According to the release, the child victim and Samuel had begun regularly using heroin and crack cocaine together in 2018.  She was removed from the Templemans' custody and placed into foster care in July 2019, but at the end of August Samuel inherited "over $25,000" which was then used "to entice the child to return to them."

"By mid-October 2019, the Templemans had spent the entire inheritance, primarily on drugs for Samuel Templeman and the victim." At that point, the only income that that family had was Deborah's bi-weekly salary, "which they spent 1-2 days after receipt" and "sex trafficking of the victim for money and the victim's occasional panhandling."

On December 11, 2021 a detective with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office showed up at Deborah's place of employment in an attempt to locate the child. While there the detective overheard a call from Samuel stating that he was taking the child on a "date: and would then pick her up from work.

When Samuel arrived to pick Deborah up from work he was arrested and the child victim was recovered.