Man sentenced for sex with teen at church camp
If the judge had let his emotions guide him, Antwain Cassell would have received the maximum sentence Thursday for having sex with a 15-year-old boy while working as a volunteer at a Far East Side church.
“My heart wants to send him to prison for 36 months, believe me,” Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Mark Serrott said. “That’s what I want to do. But that would be vindictive and out of emotion.”
Instead, he sentenced Cassell to six months in the Franklin County jail, followed by five years of probation. If Cassell violates probation, the judge promised to send him to a state prison for 34 months.
He also must register as a sex offender every six months for the next 25 years, complete sex-offender treatment and have no unsupervised contact with minors.
Cassell, 25, pleaded guilty last month to two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, both fourth-degree felonies.
Those are low-level felonies, the judge explained to the victim’s parents. Under Ohio’s sentencing guidelines, judges are instructed not to impose prison for such felonies, unless specific conditions exist.
Serrott said he could send Cassell to prison because the crimes are sex offenses that caused physical harm, “but I’m trying to weigh all the proper factors.”
Cassell knew the victim and was a friend of the boy’s family. On July 27, 2016, he was volunteering at church camp at Zion Christian Assembly Church on Motts Place Road, just west of Pickerington, when he lured the teen into a baptismal room where they had sex.
The boy’s parents told the judge that he now takes anti-anxiety drugs and has contemplated suicide.
Assistant Prosecutor Amy Van Culin expressed concern that Cassell’s behavior “could be part of a pattern” because he had a similar offense as a juvenile. She said a presentencing investigation suggested that “he doesn’t appear to get how this has affected” the victim.
Defense attorney Rebecca Pokorski disagreed, saying Cassell was a victim of sexual abuse as a child “and he, more than anybody in the courtroom, understands it ... He has lived this.”
Cassell made a brief statement when given an opportunity to speak before sentencing.
“I’d like to deeply apologize to the family,” he said. “I just hope and pray that they can forgive me for my actions.”