Man sent to prison for molesting 12-year-old Pottstown boy

NORRISTOWN » A Philadelphia man who has a previous conviction for indecent assault in the 1990s was sent back to prison after he admitted to molesting a 12-year-old Pottstown boy while he visited the borough and the boy was in his company.

Jackie Jerome Thinna Sr., 59, of the 5200 block of Walnut Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 15 to 30 years in a state correctional facility after he pleaded guilty to charges of indecent assault of a person less than 13 years old, corruption of a minor, terroristic threats, endangering the welfare of a child and harassment in connection with an August 2017 incident that occurred at a North Charlotte Street residence in Pottstown.

Judge Thomas C. Branca, who accepted a plea agreement in the case, said Thinna also must undergo a psychosexual evaluation and he ordered Thinna to have no contact with the victim or his family. Thinna also faces a lifetime requirement to report his address to state police.

Assistant District Attorney Lauren Marvel sought the lengthy prison term against Thinna, citing Thinna’s conviction in the 1990s for similar offenses that occurred in Philadelphia.

According to testimony, in February 2006, Thinna pleaded no contest in a Philadelphia court to charges of indecent assault and child endangerment in connection with his contact with two minors and he served a sentence of 11 ½ to 23 months in jail. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is an admission that prosecutors have sufficient evidence to convict. A no contest plea is still considered a conviction.

“The fact that he was incarcerated for that, was supervised

“He pretended to pat him down, acted as if he was patting him down, but what he was doing was groping him, molesting him, and he did it in front of third-party eyewitnesses.” — Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Lauren Marvel

for that and then went out, even though it was decades later, and again molested a child, shows that he is someone that cannot be trusted on the streets and needs to be put into a state correctional institution for a very long time,” Marvel said.

Thinna pleaded guilty to the most recent charges stemming from the Pottstown incident as the judge was weighing a request by Marvel to introduce evidence

of Thinna’s prior crimes at his trial. During a hearing, the victims of Thinna’s previous crimes, who are now adults, testified about Thinna’s previous conduct.

After hearing the testimony of his prior victims, Thinna opted to accept a plea agreement in the new case.

“You’re pleading guilty to these charges because you are in fact guilty?” defense lawyer Thomas M. Bowman asked Thinna.

“Yeah,” responded Thinna, who walked to court with the aid of a cane.

The most recent investigation

of Thinna began on Aug. 10, 2017, when Pottstown police received a report that Thinna molested a 12-year-old boy while he was visiting the North Charlotte Street home of the boy’s family. Thinna, according to a criminal complaint, accused the boy as well as another child and an adult in the home of stealing money from his wallet and then took the boy into the kitchen and pulled down the victim’s pants.

Thinna then proceeded to touch the boy’s genitals. Witnesses told detectives that the boy was crying

as Thinna touched him in an inappropriate manner, according to the criminal complaint filed by Pottstown Detective Mark Wickersham.

“He pretended to pat him down, acted as if he was patting him down, but what he was doing was groping him, molesting him, and he did it in front of third-party eyewitnesses,” Marvel alleged.

Thinna also threatened to “stomp the faces” of the victim and the witnesses during the incident, according to court papers and testimony.