South Carolina – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced that a man from South Carolina has been sentenced to decades in prison after pleading guilty to serious se*ual crimes against children. J. Lewis, 23, got a total sentence of 46 years after pleading guilty to multiple felony charges.
Lewis pleaded guilty to two counts of First Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct with a Minor and seven counts of First Degree Sexual Exploitation of a Minor.
An Alford plea allows a defendant to maintain innocence while acknowledging that prosecutors have sufficient evidence to likely secure a conviction. The case had been scheduled for trial this week before the plea was entered.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sent a cybertip to an investigator with the York County Sheriff’s Office in November 2020, which started the investigation. The tip was about using an online program to upload child se*ual assault material.
Investigators identified both commonly circulated material and content believed to have been self-produced, including images and videos documenting the se*ual assault of a child under the age of one.
Authorities were able to track the uploads back to an IP address that was connected to a Rock Hill home that Lewis lived in. Investigators found furniture in the house that matched what they saw in the photos and videos. Later, the police found out who the minor was. Lewis agreed to getting online material about child se*ual abuse, but he denied committing se*ual assault. But detectives said that the tattoos on Lewis’s hands matched the tattoos in the videos.
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Judge R. Keith Kelly sentenced Lewis to 25 years on each criminal se*ual conduct charge, to be served at the same time. He also imposed three-year sentences on each of the seven se*ual exploitation counts, all to be served consecutively and in addition to the other charges. Lewis received credit for 1,710 days already served.
Attorney General Wilson praised the Sheriff’s Office for its work on the case. He also talked about how the agency is part of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and is always working to keep kids safe in South Carolina.
