Child rape suspect changes plea to guilty

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, February 25, 2026

A 26-year-old Port Angeles man has changed his plea to guilty for charges of raping two Sequim teens in June 2024 near Dungeness River Railroad Bridge Park.

Daniel L. Sigmon agreed to a tentative 10-year sentence (120 months) on Feb. 19 in Clallam County Superior Court as part of a plea deal.

Judge Elizabeth Stanley agreed to find him guilty of two charges of rape of a child in the second degree. She scheduled Sigmon’s sentencing hearing for 9 a.m. Thursday, March 26.

Sigmon remains in jail with no bond set.

Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Michele Devlin recommended 120 months in jail for Sigmon with his release subject to the state’s Indeterminate Sentence Review Board.

Stanley said she’d consider the prosecution’s recommendation, but wasn’t bound to it and could impose a different sentence if warranted.

Sigmon, who has no previous criminal offenses, faces a standard range of 102-136 months in jail for the charges.

According to the recommended sentence, along with Sigmon’s release being determined by the state’s Indeterminate Sentence Review Board, he’d also be required to register as a sex offender, have a lifetime of no contact with the victims, and if released he’d be subject to a lifetime of community custody.

Stanley read Sigmon’s written statement aloud that he’s made an Alford plea where he isn’t admitting guilt, but the prosecutor would likely present evidence that would likely cause the jury to convict him.

As part of the plea, Sigmon pleads guilty to the two counts of rape of a child in the second degree, while four other counts are dismissed.

Those include two more counts of rape of a child in the second degree, and a charge for child molestation in the second degree, and charge for assault in the second degree, strangulation.

Previously, Judge Simon Barnhart signed off on a no contact order between Sigmon and the two teens, and any female under 16.

Arrest, warrants

Sigmon was arrested on Sept. 9, 2025 after law enforcement had spent months looking for him and waiting on DNA test results.

Law enforcement responded at 10:47 p.m. June 19, 2024 to Railroad Bridge Park for a reported missing 13-year-old girl. She and her friend, also 13, were not found until 12:24 a.m. the next morning in the park with Sigmon.

Court documents state that the teens told law enforcement at the park they were with the man who said he was 19, his name was Danny, his dog was named Kevin, and they were hiding from a bear.

Sigmon, later identified via a Sequim Police Department body camera, was allowed to leave as no allegations were made at the scene.

About an hour later, one of the teens’ siblings reached out to law enforcement to share that her sister was sexually assaulted and that both girls were inappropriately touched, court documents state.

Sigmon could not be found later that day.

One girl was given a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) exam, and the other a strangulation exam on June 20, 2024 at Olympic Medical Center.

Healthy Families of Clallam County also conducted separate child forensic interviews on June 25 and 26.

According to the teens, Sigmon approached them while they were swimming and offered to make them a fire.

Court documents state that one girl said Sigmon took her away from the fire and sexually assaulted her, and she feared being killed and felt paralyzed.

They continued to hide after seeing law enforcement and later a bear, with the first teen saying he molested her, and the other teen saying he pulled her back any time she tried to move, hurting her throat causing pain to breathe or talk. Sigmon also touched her inappropriately, court documents state.

She told forensic interviewers they didn’t know Sigmon, and he pressured them to stay longer and they feared being hurt.

Sheriff’s Office detectives found Sigmon living in a Port Angeles apartment in April 2025, and they served a search warrant for his DNA in July 2025, which he voluntarily supplied, according to court documents.

Via other search warrants of Sigmon’s social media accounts, detectives matched Sigmon via an online photo on his account with a Sequim Police officer’s body cam footage from June 20, 2024, and they placed him via GPS location services at the time of the incidents.

Detectives received Sigmon’s DNA results on Sept. 5 from the Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory, with the SANE and strangulation exams stating that there was “very strong support” that Sigmon was the male contributor to the DNA found in the samples.