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Posted by JUNIOR on October 29, 2009, 10:13 am
A state appeals court has affirmed a 4,060-year prison sentence given to a Springtown man in 2008 for sexually abusing three teenage girls.
The Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth issued its opinion Thursday regarding the 43 guilty verdicts and unprecedented prison sentence for James Kevin Pope.
A Parker County jury convicted Pope, 44, in July 2008 on 40 counts of sexual assault of a child and three counts of sexual performance of a child.
"It is my understanding that the defendant will be appealing this ruling to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, our state’s highest criminal appellate court," said Assistant District Attorney Eddy Lewallen.
Lewallen added that a review by that court "is at their discretion except in death penalty cases."
"They will typically grant review," he explained, "in situations where there is a novel legal issue, a difference of opinion between the courts of appeals on a particular issue, or when there is a dissenting opinion on the particular case, which there was not in Mr. Pope’s appeal."
Pope would not be eligible for parole until 3209, Parker County authorities have said.
The penalty — almost 1.5 million days — has been called the longest stacked sentence in Texas history.
Jurors took about three hours to convict Pope on the 43 charges. The jury gave 100 years for each sexual assault conviction, and 20 years for each sexual performance conviction.
The abuse occurred over 20 months beginning in May 2006, according to court records. The girls testified about the abuse, and sexually explicit photos of them corroborated their stories.
The Parker County case came to light in February after Pope made several "inappropriate comments" to a friend, authorities said. The friend became concerned and notified Child Protective Services.
Pope’s legal team argued that instructions to the jury during his trial did not properly specify which alleged act went with which count described in the indictment.
But the appeals court, in its written opinion, stated that prosecutors presented "extensive evidence," including testimony and calendars with overlays for each victim.
"Because we hold that the evidence is factually sufficient and that the trial court’s error in omitting the jury instruction was harmless, we affirm the trial court’s judgments," the appeals court justices wrote.
Pope was being held Monday at the Stiles Unit in Beaumont, a spokesman said.
This report includes material from Star-Telegram archives.
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