On June 25, a judge modified the sentence of a convicted sex offender, Timothy Vess Benton, allowing him to serve the remainder of his sentence in house arrest as a participant in the local community corrections program. In 2019, Benton pled guilty to two counts of sodomy, 2nd degree, and was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
According to court documents, Benton was originally indicted on 48 charges, including “enticing a child for immoral purposes” and “facilitating the travel of a child for an unlawful sex act,” but all charges save the two counts of second-degree sodomy were dropped as a result of the plea deal. The defense’s attempt to prove Benton was incapable of standing trial following a traumatic brain injury suffered in a 2016 car accident proved unsuccessful, despite a doctor’s assessment that Benton’s IQ had fallen from 99 to 75 following the event.
Other documents obtained by APR show the terms of Benton’s house arrest only permit leaving his parents’ home to go to doctors’ appointments, his father’s shop and a Gulf Shores house recently purchased by the family.
Christopher Key, the father of one of the victims, told APR he only found out about the change to Benton’s sentence when he began to receive messages on Facebook one morning, weeks after the fact.
“I had to tell my son that [Benton] was back out after promising my son that he would be in his thirties before this guy got outta prison,” Key recounted. “And my son’s 22. My son shut down for about three days. And then he finally came around, decided this is what he was gonna have to live with.”
Key added that he talked to both the local district attorney’s office and the judge in the case, presiding circuit Judge Samuel Junkin, about the decision. The DA’s office denied any involvement, he said.
Additionally, the judge had “ sworn to me,” Key said, “that they was fixing to release him on parole, and that’s the reason he’s doing it: that way he can keep an eye on him.”
After Key found out, he began working to organize pushback within his community and posted criticisms of the decision to his Facebook account which quickly garnered hundreds of likes and comments.
Pictures of a protest outside the Fayette County Courthouse taken by local news channel ABC 33/40 show dozens of people with signs featuring slogans like “No Parole for Pedos.”
On Thursday, Benton was arrested on a charge of violating the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, and subsequently released following the posting of a $2,500 bond. The specific violation was an alleged failure to “appear in person and provide a current and valid identification card.”
Andrew Hamlin, the district attorney for the judicial circuit that includes Fayette County, filed a motion to modify Vess’ sentence on Friday, back to serving the full term in prison. The motion specifically cited Benton’s alleged violation of SORNA as justification.
Key told APR he supports Hamlin’s effort “100 percent,” explaining that he’d spoken to the DA Friday morning and Hamlin had “assured me that he had nothing to do with it and that he would handle it from here on out.”
“ I think our victims’ rights have been violated,” Key stated. “I’m thinking about pursuing a lawyer and seeing that I can prove this.”
Judge Junkin and the DA’s office did not respond to APR’s requests for comment before time of publication.
