A soldier who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing another soldier’s 15-year-old daughter at Fort Campbell was sentenced to more than seven years in prison, the Justice Department said this week. (Samuel Shore/U.S. Army)
A soldier who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing another soldier’s 15-year-old daughter at Fort Campbell was sentenced to more than seven years in prison, according to the Justice Department.
Donald Lee Collins, 41, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexually abusing the teen and one count of attempting to transfer obscene material to her in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. Upon release he will be required to register as a sex offender and serve 10 years of probation.
With 21 years of service, Collins left the Army in September as a private, according to his official service record.
The Army gave Collins an other-than-honorable discharge, according to the Justice Department.
While living in Clarksville, Tenn., Collins connected with the girl in 2019 over Facebook Messenger, according to court documents. She was the daughter of a friend also assigned to the Army base located along the state line between Kentucky and Tennessee.
The two exchanged sexually explicit messages and images and on Dec. 31, 2019, the girl spent the night in Collins’ home as a guest of his teenage daughter.
The next morning, Collins sexually abused the girl at his home and again as he drove her to her father’s house at Fort Campbell. The second assault occurred but before entering the military installation and after, according to court documents.
He continued to send sexually explicit messages to the girl after Jan. 1, 2020.
The abuse came to light in July 2020, after the girl’s mother learned about the messages and contacted local police in Missouri, where they lived. The girl had been visiting her father, a soldier at Fort Campbell, when the sexual abuse occurred.
Afterward, Collins told the girl it was “our little secret,” and encouraged her to move to the base with her father so they could “sneak around a lot,” according to court documents. The girl told police she did not know what to do about the encounter so she pretended like nothing happened.
When Army CID interviewed Collins about the abuse in January 2022, he was then assigned to Saudi Arabia, according to court documents.
A parachute rigger, Collins also served for a time as a recruiter and deployed overseas to Afghanistan and Kuwait, according to his service record.
