Utah sex offender opened door nude, invited trick-or-treaters inside, police say

PROVO, Utah — A convicted sex offender was arrested Saturday evening after police say he answered the door of his Provo home naked and invited trick-or-treating children inside.

Steven Kelley Little, 48, was booked into the Utah County Jail for investigation of five counts of lewdness and three counts of lewdness involving a child. Police say he already serving probation for lewdness involving a child.

At 6:52 p.m., several children were trick-or-treating and approached a house at 1144 E. 460 South where Little answered the door naked and was “beckoning children inside,” said Provo police master officer Austin Williams.

The children told their parents, who were across the street, what had just happened. The father then approached the door with one of his daughters and knocked. “He opened the door again nude,” Williams said of Little, adding that the father told his daughter to leave and told Little to turn his lights off and not answer the door any more. The father then called police.

Police say one child shot video of the man answering the door naked and shared it with investigators.

“When questioned about why he answered the door nude, he said he had just got out of the shower and that’s why he was nude. And they said, ‘Why did you ask the kids inside?’ and he said that’s where the candy was,” Williams said.

At least five children over 14 and three under 14 saw Little naked, according to a police booking affidavit. The arresting officer noted that a judge should consider raising Little’s bail “as he has proved to be a danger to children and the public with his continued behavior.”

Little was arrested on Sept. 22, 2018, at the Provo Recreation Center. He had approached a stall door in the men’s locker room while naked and was viewing a 10-year-old child using the bathroom while making “sexually suggestive sounds” and touching himself, according to charging documents.

In March of 2019, Little pleaded guilty to lewdness involving a child, a class A misdemeanor. Fourth District Judge James R. Taylor ordered him to serve a year in jail, but suspended that jail time and ordered him to be on probation for three years. As part of the probation, he was ordered to spend 45 days in jail, according to court records, but it is unclear if that time was served through a work diversion program.