A man who sexually exploited a child and another who enabled the torture of an 11-year-old both walked out of court with probation this month, exposing a justice system that saves its harshest punishment for Americans who dissent and its lightest touch for those who prey on children.
James Antonio Howe, 31, was sentenced Friday to 10 years of sex offender probation in Boulder County after pleading guilty to one count of sexual exploitation of a child with intent — extreme risk, the Boulder Daily Camera reported. Two more serious charges — sexual assault on a child in a pattern of abuse and sexual assault on a child from a position of trust — were dismissed as part of the plea deal.
A boy who was a former family friend of Howe's told police Howe had groped him and forced him to perform sexual acts going back to August 2024. Another witness told police Howe molested a second child. Text messages reviewed by police showed Howe apologizing for kissing a girl whose age wasn't disclosed. Howe was already on probation from a 2024 assault case — another plea deal that dismissed child abuse, harassment and assault charges.
A pattern of predication, a pattern of plea deals, and the result is the same: no prison time.
Meanwhile, in Conway, South Carolina, Alexandria Thomas, 21, received 10 years in prison — suspended to three years probation — for unlawful child neglect after admitting she allowed her infant son to live in the same home where her sister Camisha McGaskey tortured 11-year-old A'Kyri Bell for 44 days before killing her, the Charleston Post and Courier reported.
A'Kyri died from multiple blunt force injuries to her head on June 11, 2025. McGaskey was convicted of murder last month and sentenced to life. Thomas and her boyfriend Darnell Dearmas testified for the state. Solicitor Jimmy Richardson insisted no deal was cut:
