A federal judge sentenced Michael Joseph Pepe, 68, a retired Marine Corps captain who traveled to Cambodia in 2005 to engage in illicit sexual conduct with minors to 210 years in federal prison.  He has been in federal custody since 2007. During a seven-day trial in August 2021, jurors heard testimony from eight victims who were as young as 9 years old when they were sexually abused. Each of the victims testified that Pepe sexually abused them, and several explained that Pepe drugged, bound, beat, and raped them. Prosecutors also presented evidence corroborating the victims' testimony, including homemade child pornography. Pepe initially was arrested in Cambodia 2006. After being brought to the United States and charged in early 2007, he subsequently was tried, convicted and sentenced to prison. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned the conviction in 2018, and prosecutors retried him on new charges.