The Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, man facing two decades in federal prison for taking minor boys over state lines for sex describes a childhood of sexual abuse while confessing to his 20-year-old crimes in documents filed in Chattanooga.
In September, James Coleman Thompson, 72, entered a guilty plea and accepted a recommended sentence of 240 months – 20 years – on four federal counts involving three minor boys in three states going back to the period between 1999 and 2000, according to court records. U.S. Magistrate Christopher H. Steger recommended the sentence and Thompson has agreed, but the sentence must be ordered by presiding U.S. District Judge Travis R. McDonough to become effective.
Thompson’s sentencing hearing is Jan. 10, before McDonough.
Thompson previously entered a not-guilty plea to the first three counts June 7 and then pleaded not guilty to the fourth count at his arraignment on the superseding indictment Aug. 16. Each count carried a sentence of up to 15 years.
(READ MORE: Lookout Mountain man’s extradition hearing in child sex abuse charges canceled)