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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Judge Shows No Mercy to Sex Abuser

WAXAHACHIE, Texas (CN) - A 64-year-old former attorney from North Texas who fled the country after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a child was resentenced to life in prison, state prosecutors said.

James Gordon Leonard, of Waxahachie, pleaded guilty in 2006 to aggravated sexual assault of a child, indecency with a child by contact and indecency with a child by exposure, the Ellis County District Attorney's Office said in a statement.

After being placed under community supervision, Leonard fled to Honduras and hid out for 4 years. Honduras expelled him in October 2011 after the U.S. Marshals Service found him.

Ellis County District Judge Bob Carroll last week resentenced Leonard to the maximum - life in state prison, plus 20 years and 10 years.

He was unswayed by Leonard's pleas for mercy due to the hardships the conditions of his supervision imposed, including being labelled a sex offender.

Carroll said there was a time and place for mercy, but that this was not it.

Carroll heard testimony from three of Leonard's victims, including the grandfather of twin girls.

Leonard will serve the sentences consecutively and will be eligible for parole in 45 years, when he is 109.

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