Springtown man gets 4,060 years for sexually assaulting girls

A Springtown man was sentenced to 4,060 years in prison Wednesday for sexually assaulting three teenage girls.

James Kevin Pope, 43, will be eligible for parole in the year 3209, according to the Parker County District Attorney’s office.

“Nobody out here could recall a sentence of a longer duration,” said Jeff Swain, a Parker County assistant district attorney.

Jurors convicted Pope of 40 counts of sexual assault of a child and three counts of sexual performance of a child, authorities said. They sentenced him to life in prison for each sex assault conviction and 20 years for each sex performance conviction.

At the request of prosecutors, District Judge Graham Quisenberry ordered Pope to serve the sentences consecutively, Swain said.

Pope abused the girls during a 20-month period that began in May 2006, prosecutors said. The abuse came to the attention of authorities in February 2008 after Pope made several "inappropriate comments" to a friend who notified Child Protective Service.

During the trial, the teens testified about the abuse and sexually explicit photographs of the victims were offered as evidence to corroborate their stories, Swain said.

At sentencing, a U.S. Secret Service agent testified that while examining Pope’s home computer he found "hundreds of photographs of scantily clad children in suggestive poses."

The jury deliberated for about 90 minutes before returning the sentences.

The case was prosecuted by assistant district attorneys Robert DuBoise and Kathleen Catania.