A retired teacher was sentenced to 100 years behind bars and $90,000 in fines in a child porn case that took a jury just over than 30 minutes to decide.
Orian Lee Scott was originally offered five years in a deal offered by then-County Attorney Mark Burtner. But after Burtner lost to Gary Young in the Democratic primary and resigned in late August, Young – appointed to take office at once by county commissioners – saw the plea offer had not been answered formally and pulled it off the table in favor of a full trial, according to reports in the northeastern Texas press.
"I think," state district judge James Lovett told the jury when sentencing Scott, "you were 100 percent correct in the verdict you reached." A day earlier, the jury needed only 90 minutes to convict Lovett.
The 67-year-old former teacher's sentence breaks down to 20 years on each of three charges of luring a child under 18 to sexual conduct, 10 years on each of three charges of producing or promoting a video involving sexual conduct, and 10 years on each of three charges of child porn possession, involving both videotapes and computer disks seized during a seizure at Scott's March 2003 arrest.
The child porn possession charges must run concurrently under Texas law, but the remaining sentences could be and were ordered to consecutive service.
Scott is required to serve at minimum a fourth of his sentences before he is eligible for parole. That would make him 92 years old before he could see freedom.
“I think justice was served," jury foreman Charles Hodgkiss told reporters after the sentencing. "Both sides did an excellent job. The state had the evidence and proved its case. The defense attorney did the best he could, but didn’t have much to work with.”
The defense tried to persuade the jury that Scott was too ill to stand trial, with Scott actually said to have toppled out of his wheelchair during jury selection, suffering a head bruise. But prosecutors countered that that was a ruse for jury sympathy. Scott had, however, been on suicide watch while he was detained in county jail awaiting his trial.
