Virtual life sentence in Chester County child porn case

WEST CHESTER » A former Chester County medical systems executive who stored an extensive cache of child pornography in his East Vincent home has been sentenced to a prison term that essentially guarantees that he will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

The one-time Siemens Medical Solutions IT executive was found guilty of the crimes of sexual abuse of children and possession of child pornography at a two-day trial in May 2019 at which his wife testified that Holmes had made her watch numerous videos involving child porn when they had sex. He kept a video player with the images in the couple’s bedroom, according to testimony.

His sentence of 20-to40 years in prison, though technically less than what James Franklin Holmes could have faced for his convictions on 14 counts relating to the pornography, was handed down on Wednesday by Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Sommer, who has in the past expressed his concern that those who deal in those types of materials enable the underground porn industry to flourish, even if they did not participate in their creation.

Sommer’s sentence is believed to be the longest ever given in the county to a person convicted of the crime of sexual abuse of children, the technical statute for possession of child pornography, according to District Attorney Deb Ryan in a statement Monday.

“The sentence imposed by Judge Sommer will ensure that society is protected from this dangerous and depraved deviant,”

Ryan said of Holmes, who had previously been convicted of attempting to lure a woman into providing Holmes access to her young daughter so he could sexually assault the child.

“Each video depicts an actual helpless child who was sexually abused, some as young as 3 years old,” Ryan said in an email.

“These nameless victims will endure re-victimization every time someone watches these videos. For them, the damage is lifelong. The defendant’s abhorrent actions in a previous conviction where he attempted to traffic an infant for sex and his clear sexual deviance warrant a lifetime behind bars,” she said.

Holmes, who is 66, is currently serving a 13to-27 year sentence at the state prison at Dallas for his conviction in Lycoming County on child trafficking charges. He did not appear before Sommer in person, but by video conference from state prison.

In handing down his sentence, Sommer ordered

that it not commence until Holmes had been paroled on the Lycoming County case, which would not come until December 2028 at the earliest, when he will be 74.

In a memorandum written last year by former First Assistant District Attorney Michael Noone and Assistant District Attorney Ryan Borchik, who prosecuted the case against Holmes, the duo asked for the 20-to40 year sentence in order to “remove (Holmes) from (the child porn) market permanently.”

“It is important to remember that each video in (Holmes’) possession depicted the sexual abuse of a real child,” the pair wrote. “Those children exist, and those rapes, assaults, and indecent contacts were really committed. (Holmes), and all who would possess and view this type of content, form a market for its continued creation,” the prosecutors wrote.

“Without their consumption of it, there would be no demand for the videotaping of children,” they wrote. Borchik handled the sentencing hearing before Sommer; Noone left the D.A.’s Office in December after losing the election for D.A. to Ryan, who had supervised the office’s Child Abuse Unit until 2017.

Holmes had been scheduled to be sentenced last summer, but a change of attorneys had delayed the case until now. He was represented at the sentencing hearing Wednesday by attorney Phillip Simons of Glen Mills.

The case in Chester County against Holmes began in December 2015, when state police investigated a case in which a Lycoming woman reported

having a man contact her about making her then-1year-old daughter available to him to sex.

The woman said she had met the man online and at a “swing party,” and that he said he had molested children in the past and wanted to do so again. The man, who identified himself as “Craig Jones,” offered to pay the woman if she would bring her daughter to his home in the Philadelphia suburbs so that he could begin molesting her.

Their communications were at some point taken over by state police, who posed as the woman and convinced Holmes that she wanted to come meet him. He offered to pay for her bus ticket to Reading. According to authorities, his plan was to see how the woman liked the situation and possibly allow her to become his “second wife.”

Holmes was arrested at the bus depot in Reading on Dec. 4, 2015, and state police, led by Cpl. Lori Edgar Kistle, raided his Kimberton home, where his wife and young son lived.

They seized a dozen DVDs and two computer hard drives containing hundreds of images of child pornography, according to a criminal complaint. The material, including digital videos, were found, she wrote, in Holmes’ downstairs office and his master bedroom.

The images and recordings typically involved young girls and adult men, but also involved young boys, according to the trooper’s complaint.

“In total, the forensic analysis of the seized items revealed that there were approximately 477 videos depicting children under the age of 13 engaged in indecent contact with other children or adults, and approximately 174 images of children under the age of 13 engaged in sexually prohibited acts,” Kistle wrote.

Holmes was charged with 6,540 counts of possession of child pornography. At trial, the vast majority of those charges were not considered, the prosecution having tailored its case to only 14 counts. In his sentence, Sommer set prison terms on four counts, each with a five to 10 year sentence. A fifth count earned

Holmes a subsequent five years of probation, and a sixth carried no further punishment.

Holmes is a native of Latrobe who served 28 years in the U.S. Air Force. He has a master’s degree in Computer Information Systems, and worked at Siemens from 2006 to 2009 when he was laid off. At the time of his arrest in 2015, he worked for Resource America in Philadelphia.

To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.