Utah man charged for messaging Alisa Petrov online seeks bail, claims he is not a flight risk

Related video: Charges filed against third suspect in Alisa Petrov case

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — The Utah man arrested for allegedly messaging 15-year-old Alisa Petrov online before she went missing has requested bail.

Samuel Mitchell, 41, of Herriman, Utah, was charged with five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony, and one count of enticement of a minor, a class A misdemeanor.

He is accused of communicating with Alisa through the online messaging app Discord and having conversations that were sexual in nature.

Mitchell has posted a bond between $5,000 and $10,000, arguing that he is not a flight risk due to strong ties to Utah. He has agreed to submit to ankle monitoring, a pretrial release supervision by a private probation provider — which would require regular phone check-ins — and have no internet access.

He claims he has no prior criminal history and has the financial resources to pay for home confinement/GPS geo-fencing monitoring if the court deems it appropriate.

Mitchell was previously identified as a person of interest in the disappearance of 15-year-old Alisa Petrov. Police obtained a search warrant for his phone, and he was arrested on Wednesday, May 28.

Petrov went missing on April 21 and turned herself in at the Colorado Springs Police station on June 1. The South Jordan Police Department (SJPD) told ABC4.com that she was found “alive and healthy”.

After finding several online messages exchanged between Petrov and three separate men, detectives believed Petrov was trying to get to Las Vegas, Nevada.

The three men, including Mitchell, have been charged in connection with Petrov’s disappearance. The other two have been identified as Matthew Nicholas Menard, 35, of Miami, Florida, and William Taylor Glines, 37, of Texas City, Texas.