James Kevin Pope: 43 Counts, 4,060-Year Sentence, and Appeal

James Kevin Pope, a Springtown, Texas man, is serving a 4,060-year prison sentence handed down in July 2008 after a Parker County jury convicted him on 43 counts tied to the sexual abuse of three teenage girls. The trial judge ordered every count to run consecutively, producing what has been described as the longest stacked sentence in Texas history.¹

What Pope Was Convicted Of

Pope, 43 at the time of trial, sexually abused three teenage girls over nearly two years and produced sexually explicit photographs of them during that period. A U.S. Secret Service examination of his home computer turned up more than 200 images of child pornography.²

The case opened in early 2008 after Pope made inappropriate comments to a friend, who reported the situation to Child Protective Services. That report led to a criminal investigation, his arrest, and an indictment in Parker County.³

The Trial and the 43 Counts

Pope was tried in the 415th District Court in Parker County before Judge Graham Quisenberry. Assistant District Attorney Robert DuBoise prosecuted the case; Rick Alley defended. All three victims testified.

On July 1, 2008, the jury convicted Pope on every count: 40 counts of sexual assault of a child and three counts of sexual performance of a child.²

How the Sentence Reached 4,060 Years

The jury assessed 100 years for each of the 40 sexual assault counts and 20 years for each of the three sexual performance counts. The next day, July 2, 2008, Judge Quisenberry ordered all 43 sentences to run consecutively rather than concurrently, stacking them into a single 4,060-year term. Pope was also fined $430,000.³⁴

According to the Parker County District Attorney’s Office, Pope will not be eligible for parole until the year 3209.³

DuBoise said he was “overwhelmed” by the decision to stack the sentences and called the outcome “a just result.”² Alley called the sentence “severe” and said he did not believe the stacking was warranted. James Wilson, another defense attorney, said the ruling “essentially puts Mr. Pope behind bars for the next 4,000 years.”⁴

The Appeal

Alley filed notice of appeal on July 7, 2008. Pope’s team argued that the jury instructions failed to specify which alleged act matched each count in the indictment, a challenge to the specificity of the evidence.⁵

In October 2009, the Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth rejected the challenge and affirmed both the conviction and the sentence. The court found that prosecutors had presented “extensive evidence,” including victim testimony and calendars with overlays for each victim tying specific acts to individual counts.⁵⁶ Assistant District Attorney Eddy Lewallen said at the time that Pope planned to seek further review from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Where the Sentence Ranks

Pope’s term has been described as the longest stacked sentence ever handed down in a Texas court.¹ It is not the longest in the United States. Charles Scott Robinson of Oklahoma received 30,000 years in 1994 for six counts of child rape. Allan Wayne McLaurin was sentenced to 21,250 years in Oklahoma, and James Eagan Holmes received 12 life sentences plus 3,318 years for the 2012 Aurora, Colorado theater shooting.

Where Pope Is Now

Pope remains in Texas Department of Criminal Justice custody under TDCJ number 01512811.⁷ No parole review date appears in his records, consistent with an eligibility date more than a millennium out.

1
KNUE. Longest Prison Sentence in Texas
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NBC News. Man Gets 4,060 Years for Sex Abuse
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KSWO. Texas Man Gets 4,060 Years in Prison for Sex Abuse
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Weatherford Democrat. Pope Appeals Sentence
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Sydney Morning Herald. Appeals Court Upholds 4,060-Year Sentence
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ABC 7 Amarillo. Texas Appeals Court OKs 4,000-Plus Year Sentence
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TDCJ. Inmate Search – Pope, James Kevin