An Edinburg man was sentenced Monday to 15 years in federal prison for downloading child sexual abuse material just months after he finished serving a previous sentence for the same crime, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
James Archie Wells III, 63, pleaded guilty to possessing 371 child pornography videos and images depicting the sexual assault and rape of pre-pubescent children on Dec. 2, 2021. Those videos were sado-masochistic in nature, the release said.
Wells, however, had previously been convicted of other sexual crimes against children.
According to a 2008 article from the San Marcos Mercury, Wells was living in Lockhart, Texas when he was caught with images of children engaged in sexual acts on his home computer and charged with 22 counts of child pornography possession.
Lockhart police and the state attorney general’s office began investigating him after he allegedly exposed himself to a child, the article said.
Wells was convicted of indecency with a child and possession of child sexual abuse material, but his punishment isn’t immediately known.
However, “a few months” after finishing his previous sentences, he committed the same offense in Edinburg, according to Monday’s news release.
Wells was residing in a halfway house in Edinburg when authorities learned he had been accessing the dark web to view child sexual abuse videos and images on his phone.
Authorities arrested Wells again and seized his electronic devices.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Randy Crane ordered Wells to serve a 15-year sentence to be immediately followed by a lifetime of supervised release.
“In handing down the sentence, Judge Crane noted that Wells had just finished serving his previous sentences a few months before he began re-offending. The court assessed sentencing enhancements for the number of videos, age of the victims and the sado-masochistic nature of the videos.”
Wells remains in custody pending a transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility.
He will be 78 once he’s released from prison.
