TEXARKANA, Texas–A man who used a hidden camera to secretly record a friend’s wife and two daughters in their bathroom was sentenced to 14 years behind bars as part of a plea agreement.
Jarrod Wade Dee, 37, pleaded guilty to seven counts of invasive visual recording at a hearing Tuesday before 5th District Judge Bill Miller at the Bi-State Justice Building in downtown Texarkana. Dee was sentenced to a maximum two-year term in a state jail on each count and Judge Miller ordered that the terms run consecutively, making the total sentence 14 years.
Dee, who has a prior 2017 conviction for the same crime in nearby Cass County, Texas, was arrested by the Bowie County Sheriff’s Office after a woman and her husband found a digital recording device taped under a bathroom cabinet in their home Dec. 5, 2021. Dee was a longtime friend of the husband and had been living in a trailer on the couple’s property with full access to their house while they were home, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The SD card from the device recovered in December 2021 allegedly depicted images of the couple’s 11-year-old daughter as she disrobed and showered. The wife contacted the Bowie County Sheriff’s Office a second time in February.
She reported that Dee’s sister had contacted her about some items Dee left in her care after the recording device was located in the bathroom but before his arrest. The box of Dee’s possessions included additional devices and printed nude photographs of the 11-year-old, her mother and another daughter whose age is not identified.
Dee filmed the girls and their mother through the use of hidden cameras in the bathroom and by pointing a cell phone camera beneath the bathroom door, court records show.
The recordings were made between Aug. 29, 2021, and Dec. 5, 2021, according to court records. In the Cass County case, Dee was found guilty by a jury of secretly filming a former girlfriend’s daughter in a bathroom.
Assistant District Attorney Katie Carter represented the state. Dee was represented by the Bowie County Public Defender’s Office.
