Jesse Sanford Williams

After nearly two years of sexual exploitation and torment by an online predator that culminated in a suicide attempt, the young victim faced her harasser in a Bowling Green courtroom on the day of his sentencing.

Standing at a podium on Wednesday in U.S. District Court beside her mother and Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa Ford, the 16-year-old girl, who flew here from her home in Washington state, spoke purposefully about how Jesse S. Williams’ actions affected her.

Williams, 35, of Elkton, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge Greg Stivers, had earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of production of child pornography and one count of receiving child pornography.

He admitted to setting up several email accounts from a computer at his job at Logan Aluminum through which he communicated with the victim from Washington and another underage victim from his hometown, a teenage girl who had called her “Uncle Jesse” because of the close friendship her family had with Williams.

Using false names and pretending to be a teenager in his messages, Williams gained the trust of the two juveniles before coercing them into sending him sexually explicit pictures and videos of themselves, according to court records.

The victim from Washington was 13 when her correspondence with Williams began around September 2011. Her family notified law enforcement of the activity in March 2013.

“I have to teach myself to be a person separate from what happened to me,” the victim from Washington said. “He needs to be kept from doing this to anyone else ever again. It takes a special kind of cruelty and evil to target someone in such a merciless way.”

Judge: Crimes were “absolutely despicable”

Stivers castigated Williams for his conduct, saying that the pattern of abuse he exhibited with the two children was “abhorrent” and “absolutely despicable.”

The judge also said he was troubled by the volume of interactions Williams had with the two victims over a long period of time.

“The age of the victims is something that is especially troubling,” Stivers said. “It’s egregious because your conduct was aimed at children who were especially vulnerable.”

Williams, who will be placed on supervised release for another 20 years following his release from prison, faced up to 80 years in prison for his offenses.

Federal sentencing guidelines, which take into account the nature of a defendant’s criminal acts and the defendant’s prior criminal history, recommended a penalty for Williams ranging between 30 and 80 years imprisonment.

Ford said the case was a difficult one for her when it came to deciding what punishment to recommend for Williams. She urged Stivers to do what he believed was just and appropriate.

“The emotional scars that are left when there’s a betrayal of trust can be as lasting as physical injuries, though we may not be able to see them,” Ford said.

Williams’ attorney, John Caudill of Bowling Green, argued Wednesday for a 15-year sentence for his client, which is the mandatory minimum sentence Williams could have received. 

Caudill cited Williams’ clean criminal record prior to the federal charges, his acknowledgment of his actions when confronted by investigators and his work in his community, including service as a volunteer firefighter.

Caudill also said that Williams did not engage in physical contact with any of his victims, and cited a case from several years ago in federal court in Bowling Green in which a defendant who engaged in sexual intercourse with a relative was given a sentence of comparable length to the one he requested for Williams.

“Fifteen years is more than enough to satisfy every objective of the court,” Caudill said. “Mr. Williams, irrespective of the conduct that brought him here today, is someone who gives of himself to his community and his neighbors in ways that are uncommon.”

More than 40 letters from people supporting Williams were addressed to Stivers prior to the sentencing.

Nick Williams, Jesse Williams’ father, testified about his son’s upbringing and his service as a firefighter, recounting a time he brought a generator to a needy family during an ice storm.

“I know he messed up and it’s bad, but … he’s never done anything to bring shame to me,” Nick Williams said. “What these charges are is not who Jesse is.” 

Jack Petrie, who lives near Williams’ parents, testified about knowing him since he was born and spoke of his high character.

Williams himself spoke briefly before his sentencing, offering an apology to the people he hurt and declaring he was ready to accept his punishment.

“I knew it was wrong and my desires overrode my better judgment,” Williams said. “I was not aware of the fact that what I was doing was hurting real people … that was never my intent.”

Stivers said that Williams’ criminal behavior “erases the goodwill of an entire lifetime” that he had built in the community, but ultimately decided on a 20-year sentence due in part to the need to avoid an unwarranted disparity in punishment among defendants with similar records who were found guilty of similar conduct.

Emails point to Williams

Williams established contact with the victim from Washington in 2011, identifying himself as a 16-year-old named “Josh Nash.”

Within months of the first email, a person the victim believed to be an 18-year-old named “David” sent her a message in which he claimed to have hacked into Josh’s email account and changed his passwords.

According to a federal criminal complaint, “David” told the teenager that he would not allow her to talk to “Josh” unless she sent sexual videos of herself to “David”.

A person posing as “Kevin” also sent threatening messages to the victim.

The victim reported receiving threats from four email accounts, including threats to send her videos to others or to alert her parents to her online activity.

An investigation by the Seattle office of the FBI determined that the four email addresses reported by the victim appeared to belong to the same person and could be traced back to a computer at Logan Aluminum. 

The Seattle-based agent notified the FBI office in Louisville, and an agent there contacted Logan Aluminum in an effort to determine who created the accounts.

Officials at the industrial plant identified Williams as the likely suspect through an analysis of computer login data, employee shift schedules, attendance records and video surveillance footage, the criminal complaint stated.

FBI agents executed a search warrant of Williams’ residence in February 2014, and Williams admitted in an interview to creating the email accounts and using them to coerce the victim in Washington to send sexually explicit images and video to him.

Further investigation revealed a second victim who lives in Todd County and was less than 18 when she communicated with Williams in 2011.

In that exchange, Williams posed as a teenage boy named “David,” and the pair maintained a dialogue that led to him requesting sexually explicit photos from her.

After she complied, Williams demanded more images in various poses and threatened to disclose her activity to her mother if she refused, according to the criminal complaint.

Williams appeared to know a great deal about this victim’s contacts and knew her mother’s name and phone number, the complaint stated.

Williams was familiar with her mother because he had been a family friend for several years.

Both of this victim’s parents testified at Wednesday’s sentencing hearing.

“My daughter knew him as ‘Uncle Jesse’ because I treated him like a brother,” the Kentucky victim’s mother said before directly addressing Williams. “I love you, but you did a crime and you tore my family apart and you will have to pay for that.”

— Follow courts reporter Justin Story on Twitter at twitter.com/jstorydailynews