Ky. man previously freed from prison by Matt Bevin gets 8-year sentence for sex crime
A Western Kentucky man who had his state sex-offense sentence cut short by Gov. Matt Bevin only to be charged in federal court over the same crime has been sentenced to eight years in prison.
Dayton R. Jones, now 27, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Paducah.
Jones pleaded guilty to a charge of production of child pornography stemming from an assault that happened in October 2014 in Hopkinsville, where he grew up.
Jones was 20 years old when he and a group of friends, many of them underage, got drunk at a party. After one 15-year-old boy passed out, others at the party sexually assaulted him with a sex toy, according to an affidavit from Renee Chouinard, a special agent with the FBI.
Jones recorded a short video of the abuse on his phone and posted it on Snapchat. Someone who saw it made a copy and gave it to police, according to a court record.
Jones pleaded guilty in state court in 2016 to first-degree sodomy, first-degree wanton endangerment and distributing material portraying a sexual performance by a minor, and received a sentence of 15 years in prison.
Bevin, a Republican, commuted Jones’ sentence to time served in December 2019 after losing re-election to current Gov. Andy Beshear. Jones had served three and a half years.
It was one of hundreds of pardons and commutations Bevin issued in the closing days of his term, angering crime victims, their families, prosecutors and many state lawmakers.
The FBI picked up a case on Jones after that and he was charged in federal court in April 2020. The federal case was based on the same crime, but it was a different charge, allowing Jones to be prosecuted in federal court even though Bevin ended his state sentence.
The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jo E. Lawless, and Jones’ defense attorney, Aaron Dyke, had agreed to recommend a 10-year sentence on the federal charge.
However, they differed on whether the time Jones served in state prison should be deducted from that.
Dyke argued it should, which would have cut Jones’ new sentence to six years and six months.
That would result in a sentence about equal to what Jones would have served in state prison based on his parole eligibility if Bevin hadn’t commuted his sentence, Dyke said.
“It was a fair sentence then. It’s a fair sentence now,” Dyke said.
Dyke pointed out Jones will always carry the burden of being a convicted felon and sex offender, even though the video he posted was only three seconds long, and will have limits on his liberty and his job options, Dyke said.
Jones’ conduct also wasn’t a typical child-pornography case, with people victimizing children by producing or distributing illegal images for gratification, but rather a prank that escalated, Dyke said.
Lawless, however, argued for a full 10-year sentence for Jones.
Lawless said the government agreed to recommend a sentence under the federal minimum after Jones gave authorities information about drug activity in jail and additional information about the 2014 assault case that helped fill in blanks for police.
No one was charged as a result, but Jones received consideration for cooperating, Lawless said.
Lawless said the government believes Jones “has not been held fully accountable for that sodomy charge,” pointing out that only one year of his state sentence was on that charge, while the minimum sentence under his federal plea would have been 15 years if the government hadn’t agreed to recommend less.
Some of Jones’ supporters have said they believe politics played a role in the decision to charge him in federal court, but Lawless said that wasn’t true.
“Justice, the pursuit of justice, is what drove the decision to charge Mr. Jones . . . ,” not politics or revenge, she said.
And Lawless said the assault was no prank. The victim suffered serious injuries that required multiple surgeries, and still deals with the emotional damage and the stigma of having everyone know what happened to him.
The eight-year sentence that Senior U.S. Judge Thomas B. Russell imposed was in line with the full 10-year sentence, recognizing the two years Jones has been locked up since he was charged in federal court, but with no credit for his state prison time.
Russell said the sentence could have been much longer. The advisory sentence was at least 27 years, though that calculation is not binding on judges.
Jones’ sentence includes $50,000 in restitution to the victim. When he is released, he will be under court supervision for 15 years.
He will have to serve at least 85% of the eight years.
‘A dark cloud’
Before the sentencing, Jones said in a lengthy hand-written letter to the judge that he regretted the crime.
“No matter how good a of a day I might be having, or not, there is always a dark cloud over my mood that stems from that day,” Jones wrote.
Jones had completed a two-year degree in business and was attending Arkansas State University on a golf scholarship before he was arrested. He also had the potential to work in family businesses, according to letters from family members and friends.
“I had everything going for me and one horrible night sent my entire life off track,” Jones wrote to the judge.
Jones said he and others played pranks on the victim, and said that “as far as he actual assault goes, I wasn’t a part of it at all.”
However, Jones’ plea agreement in federal court included a reference to language in his state plea that said he “committed the offense of deviant sexual intercourse with a fifteen year old victim by inserting a large sex toy in his rectum. The victim was incapacitated at the time of the assault.”
Jones also spoke in court Tuesday, apologizing to the victim.
“I’d like to take it back,” he said of the crime, “but it’s just not possible.”
Other commutations
Jones is not the first person who received a pardon or commutation from Bevin who has since faced a new prosecution.
In another high-profile case, Patrick Baker, who was convicted in state court of killing a Knox County man while trying to rob him of drugs and money, was convicted in the man’s death in a federal trial last year.
Bevin had pardoned Baker on the state charge just two years after he received a 19-year sentence, a decision that caused controversy because Baker’s brother and sister-in-law had held a political fundraising event for Bevin the year before the pardon.
Bevin said the fundraiser had nothing to do with the pardon, but state and federal authorities have looked into the issue.
U.S. District Claria Horn Boom sentenced Baker to 42 years on the federal conviction, but gave him credit for the time he had served in state prison.
Baker denied he committed the homicide and is appealing.
This story was originally published May 17, 2022 at 3:23 PM.
