A man charged with multiple counts of aggravated possession of child sexual abuse materials and crimes against nature, among other charges, was sentenced to two life sentences, plus 20 and more on July 10.
Jered Deatherage, 27, pleaded guilty to nine charges on April 28. The charges are: count one and two - aggravated possession of child sexual abuse material; count three and four - pornography - procure/produce/distribute/posess juvenile pornography; count five, six and seven - record/distribute/transmit obscenity; and count eight and nine - crime against nature.
District Judge Sarah Bridge sentenced Deatherage to the maximum of life each for counts one and two, 20 years each for counts three and four, and 10 years each for counts five through nine.The sentences for counts one, three and four are to be served consecutively, with the 20 years for count four to be suspended, while counts one, two, five, six, seven, eight and nine are to be served concurrently.
Bridge said that the sentence for count four is suspended as she wished to put in place conditions should Deatherage be released after serving the previous sentences. He is to be supervised by the Department of Corrections, there will be a psychological assessment and recommendations, sex offender treatment, registered sex offender, no computer access, no contact or possession of animals, no contact with younger children and sex offender polygraphs at a minimum of every six months.
There is no fine, but a VCA of $100 per count, plus court cost and 991 fees. Deatherage also agreed to forfeit all of the devices seized by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) during the investigation.
ADA Rachel Thompson asked for the max on every count and to run them consecutively.
“I have some serious concerns, even more than serious concerns, about this defendant ever being in public,” she said. “I have some serious concerns about the fact that he was a truck driver going across state lines. We don’t know that there have been any hands-on offenses, but I would not be surprised to learn it.”
Defense Attorney Carlos Henry stated that Deatherage was a troubled child and while he has done things that are “disgusting” and “shameful,” Deatherage has acknowledged those things. The attorney asked for 20 to 25 years, or 18 with good behavior, saying Deatherage wants to change and deal with his addiction.
“He’s not the worst things that he does,” Henry said. “This is the worst case of addiction I have seen, and I’ve worked in the addiction area for 38 years.”
Criminalist Denise Kramer of OSBI testified that this was one of the worst such cases she had come across due to the sheer amountofmaterial.Shebookmarkedabout 200 to 300 child sexual abuse and animal torture images and videos on some of the devices, and stopped at 500 on others.
“I’ve been doing examinations for over 10 years, but I highly underestimated the nature of the pictures and videos that I would be going through,” Kramer said on the stand. “Just the sheer amount of pictures and videos of child sexual abuse and animal abuse as well as the content. Typically, it’s not typical of any case that we have received in the past.”
Deatherage also took the stand, saying his addiction started by connecting with the wrong kind of people on social media. It began with talking about the material, before progressing to viewing it and eventually making it, in terms of the animal abuse content. Deatherage said he never made child sexual abuse content.
“I, to be fair and honest with everybody, I believe I should go to prison,” he said.