Chester man sent to prison for sex crimes committed as a teen
MEDIA COURTHOUSE >> A 24-year-old Chester man was sentenced to six to 12 years in a state prison Thursday on three charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse that he committed between the ages of 13 and 15.
Javon Garrett was convicted in August following a jury trial before Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge Gregory Mallon. The victim, now 13, testified at trial that Garrett forced him to perform oral sex when he was between the ages of 4 and 5.
The teen tearfully described Garrett telling him what to do in Garrett’s bedroom and the basement of his house. He said the encounters were sometimes rushed. The victim estimated this happened more than 10 but fewer than 20 times, including one instance where other small children were playing nearby.
“I was scared to tell,” the teen said. “I was scarred they would think that I was lying. I was scarred it was going to cause a whole bunch of problems.”
Garrett, who worked as an online banker for Capital One, testified that there had been bouts of bad blood between his family and the victim’s family during the time the abuse was alleged to have taken place, but denied ever sexually assaulting the boy.
“I would never do anything like that,” he said at trial. “There is no truth (to the claims) at all, whatsoever.”
Defense attorney George Newman argued Thursday that had Garrett been charged and convicted as a juvenile at the time the offenses occurred, he would have received a more lenient sentence than the nine to 18 years suggested by Assistant District Attorney Chris Boggs.
“This young man, nine years ago he was a kid, he was a juvenile, and we’re going to punish him as an adult for things he did as a kid?” Newman said. “It’s not right … It’s just overkill for what he did.”
Newman noted Garrett had not had any prior contacts with police and has a good reputation in the community, as evidenced by the large contingent of friends and family present Thursday.
Newman said that even if Garrett had been charged as an adult at the time of the offense, the defense would have argued he was amendable to treatment and likely had the case transferred to juvenile court.
“Kids do stupid, bad, even terrible things,” said Newman. “And then they grow up, and sometimes they grow up to be normal,
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