Daniel Hawkins
MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee man accused of sexually assaulting a girl who went missing from a mental health facility in April 2025 has pleaded guilty to the two charges against him. Daniel Hawkins pleaded guilty on Thursday, April 30, to charges of child enticement and second-degree sexual assault of a child.
Hawkins is now scheduled to be sentenced on May 22.
Case details
The backstory:
The 14-year-old girl from Illinois walked out of the Lad Lake inpatient mental health facility near 88th and Vienna in April 2025.
An anonymous tip ultimately led authorities to the girl near 38th and Wisconsin in Milwaukee on May 1, 2025.
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During the search for the missing girl, court filings said Hawkins spoke to people who were distributing fliers in an effort to find her on April 21. Those people told police that Hawkins said he had recently seen the girl.
They also said Hawkins told them he had spent days with the girl and had dropped her off in "a high-prostitution area with prevalent drug activity."
Officers responded to the area that day and spoke to Hawkins. Prosecutors said he admitted the girl was asking him about drugs and claimed she was 19 years old. He also said he drove the girl to "obtain methamphetamine." He was arrested after officers were unable to find the girl at that location where he said he had taken her.
The Source: Information in this post was provided by Wisconsin Circuit Court Access, the criminal complaint associated with this case, and previous FOX6 News coverage.