The US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina announced Tuesday that Peele, 21, was sentenced to 151 months (>12.5 years) in prison for the "transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity."
The court's sentencing comes as part of a plea deal with US attorneys.
Citing court documents and statements, the release detailed that authorities were first alerted on the morning of October 21, 2018, after a woman in New Bern, North Carolina, discovered her 12-year-old granddaughter was missing. A handwritten ransom note demanding $20,000 for her return was also retrieved from the scene.
After checking the pre-teen's Facebook page, authorities were able to identify Peele as a suspect and member of the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg.
"They traced him to a barracks room, where the same afternoon they found Peele together with the minor victim," the issuance read. "A forensic examination confirmed that Peele had recently had sexual intercourse with the minor."
Peele's roommate - another Ft. Bragg soldier - told investigators that he chose to leave the room after the roommate told him to turn up his music, "which the roommate understood to mean that Peele planned to have sex with the girl behind a sheet that had been hung across the room for privacy."
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrived soon after and arrested Peele. Investigators later learned that Peele introduced the minor to his parents during a brief trip to South Carolina.
According to authorities with the Craven County Sheriff's Office and the FBI, a fellow soldier at Ft. Bragg gave Peele a ride to the minor's home about a week before the staged kidnapping.
The friend began to question the girl's age after noticing the "childlike décor, including middle school photographs and a hamster." He allegedly exited the room after Peele and the minor began kissing.
After first claiming that he was unaware of the child's age, Peele eventually admitted to FBI agents that he had seen the girl at a sleepover with other girls who looked young, "including one girl whose age he had seen to be 12 years old."
Both Peele and the minor admitted to having a sexual relationship. During a forensic interview, the pre-teen told investigators that Peele was well aware of her age.
"He also admitted to writing the ransom note, although he stated that the victim had asked to leave with him and had come up with the idea of staging a kidnapping," the Tuesday issuance detailed.
Peele was notably directed for separation from the 82nd Airborne Division in April 2019, around six months after his arrest.
