Man sentenced to 9 to 18 years for assault of 15-year-old girl
A 29-year-old man was sentenced on Wednesday, May 24, to serve between 9½ to 18 years in jail for performing sexual acts with a minor at a party in 2021.
James E. Howard-George was found guilty by a jury during a two-day December trial in 2022 for counts of felony statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviant sexual intercourse with a person under 16 years old and corruption of minors, and a misdemeanor charge of indecent assault of person under 16 years old.
He was arrested on the charges in July 2021 by city police, and has been in Butler County prison ever since.
At the time of the alleged incident, Howard-George had been on parole since January 2021, when he was sentenced for his guilty plea regarding his involvement in the murder of a 26-year-old Butler woman.
Howard-George had pleaded guilty to helping his friend, Ishemer Ramsey, 25, burn and hide the woman’s body in Lawrence County in 2017.
Howard-George appeared Wednesday before Judge Timothy McCune to receive his sentence.
Laura Pitchford, assistant district attorney, recapped the December 2022 trial for McCune, saying witnesses testified Howard-George had been present at a party with minors when the incident took place.
“He performed sexual acts on video with a minor who was 15 years old,” she said. “And in his interview with police, he changed his story several times, saying at first that he wasn’t there, then saying that it could have happened, but he didn’t remember.”
“He has a career of dancing through the raindrops of the justice system, and trouble seems to follow him. I believe we need to protect the community from Mr. Howard-George,” Pitchford added.
According to previous reports, police had been alerted through ChildLine, a hotline that reports child abuse in Pennsylvania, about the assault on May 12, 2021.
Police said the alleged victim was Howard-George’s adolescent girlfriend. She and a witness provided interviews and statements that corroborated Howard-George having sex with the teen, which included at least two videos of those sexual acts.
Police said one of the videos shows the two having sex at a party on May 8, 2021.
Jennifer Popovich, defense attorney, argued that though the guilty verdict made the crimes deserving of penalty, she asked for a sentence of five to 10 years in prison for the involuntary deviant sexual intercourse, with all other sentences running concurrently.
“(The victim) testified she was 30 days from 16, the age of consent, and she told (Howard-George) she was 18 years old,” he said.
McCune ultimately ruled that Howard-George would serve consecutive sentences of 36 to 62 months on the first charge, 72 to 144 months on the second charge, and 6 to 12 months on the fourth charge.
