{"id":222117,"date":"2026-04-07T15:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/222117\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T15:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:54:10","slug":"indianapolis-man-sentenced-for-in-flight-assault-on-minor-heading-to-orlando","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/222117\/","title":{"rendered":"Indianapolis man sentenced for in-flight assault on minor heading to Orlando"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Department of Justice reports that John Daniel Fowler, 65, of Indianapolis, IN, was sentenced to six years in federal prison for abusive sexual contact on an aircraft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Fowler was also sentenced to 15 years of supervised release following his prison term. A federal jury found Fowler guilty on January 13.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to testimony presented at trial, Fowler sat next to a minor on a flight from Indianapolis to Orlando. During the flight, Fowler saw the minor taking a cellphone photo through the plane window and asked the minor to send him the photo, giving his cellphone number.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The DOJ report states Fowler repeatedly invaded the minor\u2019s personal space. Fowler consistently touched her arm and after she fell asleep, sexually assaulted her under the blanket. Each time, the minor pushed his hand away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The minor woke up as the plane was landing in Orlando, while Fowler was still groping her. The minor immediately reported the conduct to the flight crew, who separated the child victim from Fowler and notified law enforcement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Fowler, a registered sex offender, was convicted in Indiana for sexual battery and confinement. The 2017 victim testified to Fowler\u2019s pattern of similar conduct, confirming he pursued her without consent after she fell asleep and woke up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/mobile-apps\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Click here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Click here&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:click here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;click here&quot;}\" class=\"link \">click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ylk=\"ct:story;elm:img;itc:0;\" class=\"stretched-box\" href=\"https:\/\/wftvapps.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"537\" height=\"108\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/beda08358d6db9816e7b0d066edd22cf.jpeg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Department of Justice reports that John Daniel Fowler, 65, of Indianapolis, IN, was sentenced to six years&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[100624,32137,139,141,140],"class_list":{"0":"post-222117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-daniel-fowler","9":"tag-federal-prison","10":"tag-orlando","11":"tag-orlando-headlines","12":"tag-orlando-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}