Montana man faces sentencing for sex with Pa. teen

ERIE, Pa. (AP) — A Montana man is scheduled to be sentenced by a federal judge in northwestern Pennsylvania on charges that he had sex with a 14-year-old runaway from Erie during a cross-country trip.

Twenty-three-year-old Donald Cates, of Lewistown, Mont. will be sentenced today. He pleaded guilty in May to taking the girl across state lines for criminal sexual activity and traveling with the intent of having sex with a minor. He also acknowledged inducing the girl to have sex.

Cates was arrested in April 2009 in Clarksville, Ark. after a citizen spotted him hitchhiking with the girl and called police, ending a four-day search for the girl. Authorities say Cates and the girl had communicated by e-mail and phone for two years before he came to Pennsylvania to meet her.