PHOENIX— James King was sentenced to 283.5 years in the Department of Corrections for ten counts of Sexual Exploitation of a Minor, each a class 2 felony and considered Dangerous Crimes against Children. Each count carried 28 years flat plus 3.5 years for violating probation resulting from a 1999 conviction.

“This sentence illustrates the seriousness with which Arizona takes crimes against children, and is appropriate given the defendant’s prior criminal conduct and failure to take advantage of a second chance,” said County Attorney Bill Montgomery. “We will not tolerate a market for child pornography, whether we’re dealing with a user, a producer, or a distributor,” Montgomery added.

On September 18, 2013, while serving lifetime probation for a 1999 conviction of Attempted Sexual Conduct with a Minor, officers from the Adult Probation Department conducted a routine search of the defendant’s computer. The search revealed large amounts of child pornography that had been saved in a file marked “to be deleted.” The Adult Probation officers called police who seized his computer. During a forensic examination, police located approximately 25,000 files of very young children engaged in both exploitive exhibition and sexual conduct.

His previous offense had occurred in July 1999, when the defendant’s nine-year-old niece reported to family members that her uncle came into her room the night before and groped her. The defendant admitted his actions, but blamed his conduct on excessive alcohol consumption. The original plea in the 1999 case was lifetime supervised probation with one year in jail.

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