May 15, 2026 – LOS ANGELES, CA – A Ventura County man pleaded guilty on Thursday to sex trafficking 
two minors two months after his release from California state prison, where he served time after being convicted of child sex crimes.
Image by Ray Shrewsberry • Ray_Shrewsberry from Pixabay
Kai Whitney Sommers, 38, of Ventura, and registered sex offender, pleaded guilty to one count of sex trafficking of minors. He has been in federal custody since June 2024.
According to his plea agreement and other court documents, Sommers was convicted and sentenced in September 2021 in Los Angeles Superior Court for statutory rape and lewd or lascivious acts with a child 14/15 years and offender 10+ years older. In that case, Sommers enticed a minor on an online chat room to make money as an escort. He then lured the victim to meet with him, took her to his house, and sexually assaulted the victim.
In June 2023, Sommers was released on post-release community supervision in Los Angeles County and later accepted for supervision in Ventura County. The supervision terms for Sommers include no access or possession of any digital devices that access the internet.
In August 2023, approximately two and half months after his release, Ventura County Probation conducted a search at Sommers’ residence and determined that he was in possession of digital devices that contained child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and during this same month had been in communication with a minor on a messaging platform geared toward teens.
During the review of Sommers devices, law enforcement identified a 16-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl who met Sommers on the online platform. Sommers had requested he and the victims move the conversation to a secure application where he could entice and coerce the minors how to make extra money as escorts.
Sommers enticed one victim to produce CSAM and enticed the other victim to provide fully clothed images for him that, unknown to both victims, he then posted multiple commercial sex advertisements of each victim. The ads on an adult website depicted the victims as “18-year-old” escorts. Sommers also pretended to be the victims while he communicated with the potential adult clients. Sommers told the minors that if the clients asked how old they were, they had to say, “18.”
Sommers ultimately coerced one of the victims to meet with two adult men he found on the adult website and on both occasions a commercial sex act occurred in exchanged for money.
Sommers further admitted in his plea agreement to possessing in August 2023 a phone that contained nearly 150 visual depictions of CSAM. He also admitted to distributing CSAM.
United States District Judge Josephine L. Staton scheduled a September 24 sentencing hearing, at which time Sommers will face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The FBI and the Ventura Police Department are investigating this matter.
Assistant United States Attorney Chelsea Norell of the Major Crimes Section is prosecuting this case.
Source: DOJ Release