Crime & Safety
Oconee Man Guilty of Child Exploitation, Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison
Thomas Heath King pleaded guilty Monday to two charges of child exploitation one year after a cell phone store clerk notified authorities the man had inappropriate images of children on his phone.
A 43-year-old Oconee man pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of children in Superior Court on Monday, about a year after a cell phone store clerk notified authorities the man had disturbing images of children on his phone, according to a post on the Oconee County Sheriff's Office Facebook page.
Chief Judge Lawton Stephens gave Thomas Heath King, a 30-year sentence, 15 of which must be spent in prison, according to the Oconee County Sheriff's Office.
Authorities identified the pictures of two Oconee County children in King's phone - one an 8-year-old girl, the other a 6-year-old boy - and conducted search warrants at King's Old Madison Road Home, where they collected similar images of children from computer hardware and other electronic storage drives, according to the Athens Banner-Herald.
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Oconee County Sheriff's deputies arrested King after a Verizon store clerk reported the images when King visited the store on July 16, 2010, with a question about his cell phone bill, according to another Athens Banner-Herald report.