On Tuesday, October 29th, following a thirteen hour hearing spanning two days before the Montgomery County Juvenile Court, Judge Kathleen Hamilton chose to waive her exclusive jurisdiction over a 17-year-old charged with 46 felony counts and transfer the young man to district court for prosecution as an adult. The Montgomery County Attorney’s Office had charged the accused, Llewellyn Van Sligtenhorst, with Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child, Trafficking of a Person, Sexual Performance by a Child, Possession and Promotion of Child Pornography, Indecency with a Child, Exploitation of a Child, Obscenity, and Unlawful Restraint alleged to have been committed against a 6-year-old victim when Van Sligtenhorst was 16 years old.
The investigation began in 2012 when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children forwarded a cybertip to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations Unit concerning the interstate transmission of child pornography. The source of that material was determined to be a home in Harris County, but the information was too old to support a search warrant. When the Homeland Security Investigations Unit became aware of a second transmission from that same location in the 5000 block of Mossy Bridge in Spring in April of 2013, federal agents and officers with the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable’s Office executed a search warrant and recovered approximately 4000 images from Van Sligtenhorst’s electronic devices. Over 200 of these images involved this 6-year-old victim.
After investigators determined that the offenses had occurred at a second home in Montgomery County, additional search warrants were executed at both the Harris County and Montgomery County homes in May of 2013. Police were able to locate almost all of the evidentiary items set forth in the search warrants. Llewellyn Van Sligtenhorst was taken into custody the following day, and remained in the Montgomery County juvenile detention center until his certification as an adult on Tuesday. At the request of the Montgomery County Attorney’s Office, Judge Hamilton assessed bond at $500,000.
County Attorney J D Lambright stated that “this case is likely the most egregious case involving a juvenile offender committing such despicable sex acts on another juvenile in the history of our county. The cooperative effort of law enforcement agencies at both the national and local level, along with Investigator Jimmy Wiggins in the County Attorney’s Office, enabled my juvenile prosecution staff to assemble and present a compelling argument that Van Sligtenhorst should be prosecuted as an adult. Assistant County Attorney Marc Brumberger, lead prosecutor on the case, and my entire prosecution team are to be commended for their outstanding work in protecting our community from such a predator.”
On that same date, the Montgomery County Attorney’s Office, with Brett Peabody as the lead prosecutor, sought to have another juvenile transferred from the custody of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD – formerly TYC) into the adult prison system for an unrelated sexual assault of a child. Judge Hamilton transferred that juvenile, as well. As Lambright explained, “we are seeing an increasing number of juveniles preying on other juveniles in our community. Unfortunately, such heinous acts can have long-lasting and profound effects on the lives of these young victims. Typically, cases involving young offenders are handled entirely within our juvenile system, where we have a very successful sex offender treatment program. However, when the case involves older juvenile perpetrators and the offenses committed rise to this level, we will continue to vigorously seek to have such offenders prosecuted as adults in district court.”
On Thursday the Montgomery County Grand Jury indicted Vansligtenhorst on sixteen of the charges which took place between December 24, 2012 and January 16, 2013. The sixteen indictments included 6 for aggravated sexual assault of a child, 2 for promotion of child pornography, 2 for sexual performance of a child and 6 counts of possession of child pornography.
Vansligtenhorst remains in the Montgomery County Jail . He is also facing charges for which he has not yet been indicted on. Those charges are as follows:
TRAFFICKING CHILD ENGAGE CONDUCT/SEXUAL-1
AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ASSAULT OF A CHILD-2
SEXUAL PERFORMANCE BY A CHILD LESS THAN 14 YEARS OF AGE
EMPLOY/DIRECT OR PROMOTE-6
POSSESSION WITH INTENT TO PROMOTE CHILD PORNOGRAPHY-6
INDECENCY WITH A CHILD-9
UNLAWFUL RESTRAINT LESS THAN 17 YEARS OF AGE-5
His total bond has been set at $500,000.
Comments are closed.