Sentenced: Las Vegas Man Convicted Of Forcing Teen To Pose Nude Says It Was A loving Relationship

[Sugar Cookie]

A piece of shit who posed as a man 40 years his junior and pressured a Morris County teen to send nude photos and videos in 2017, later sending them to her teacher, was sentenced on Thursday to 24 years in prison.

Kelvin Briggs, 64, could spend about 11 years in custody before he is eligible for release due to time he has already served as well as his eligibility under parole guidelines, said Morris County Judge Stephen Taylor.

Prosecutors said Briggs posed as a 19-year-old and connected on an online app with a 13-year-old Jefferson girl who he later forced to send nude photos and videos of herself. When she tried to stop communication, Briggs engaged in stalking behavior by sending her screenshots of his flight plans to Newark Liberty International Airport and images of her home and school on Google Maps. He later fulfilled a threat of sending her nude photo to her teacher at Jefferson High School, prosecutors said. Although Briggs did not testify at the trial, his attorney Elizabeth Martin stressed it was a case of mistaken identity.

While the girl and her mother testified at trial, they did not attend the in-person hearing. Assistant prosecutor Sandler noted that they fear upon Briggs' release from prison, he will find them and said they wished he be sentenced "to the fullest extent of the law."

"The manipulation and trauma inflicted on victims from these sorts of crimes that this defendant committed is incalculable," Sandler said.

Martin, and later Briggs, turned the blame on the victim, calling her a "willing participant."

Martin also asked the judge to consider that her client had no physical contact with the victim and that no harm was done since it was all done over the internet.

The comments angered Sandler, who said, "It is outside the realm of possibility that someone does not understand that engaging a child in sexual behavior is not going to cause or threaten any harm to them."

"The mind of a child is not the mind of an adult, this child is not held criminally responsible for any of these actions," Sandler said.

Briggs, wearing an orange jail jumper and a face mask, spoke for nearly 40 minutes, often speaking in the third person and describing the victim as someone he was in a "loving relationship" with.

"To say she has no responsibility in this, it's just not right," Briggs said, adding that authorities are doing teens a "disservice" by not teaching them that going on the internet and posting nude photos is inappropriate.

He said he was humiliated and hurt when the victim showed him a video of her with another guy, and he attempted to "talk through" their problems before he acted out.

He also said he believed he was being immediately victimized because he was a Black man and she was white.

Taylor said Briggs' comments showed he never accepted responsibility for his actions.

"He blames in large part the child victim for these offenses, fails to acknowledge his role in the crime or even recognize that there's blame apart from blaming of the victim and that's troubling to the court," Taylor said.

The relationship between the two was not "loving," but rather deception on Briggs' part by posing as someone he was not that caused significant and emotional and mental harm on the victim, Taylor said.

Authorities began their investigation on Nov. 16, 2017 after the teen told Jefferson police she had been communicating with a 19-year-old man online between August and September 2017. The chats turned sexual and he demanded she pose nude, send him photographs and sexually touch herself in videos, according to court records.

When she attempted to stop communications with him, he threatened to "ruin her life" and told her he was suicidal, prior records show. Briggs was apprehended in Nevada and extradited in April 2018 to face his charges.

Briggs, at the end of Thursday's lengthy hearing, told the judge "I actually think this was fair."

Las Vegas man convicted of forcing Jefferson teen to pose nude sentenced to 24 years

Kelvin Briggs, 64, was given a 24-year sentence but could be released by the time he turns 75 due to time served and parole guidelines, a judge said.

news.yahoo.com

 

[Mountaineer95]

11 years? Why not one year in prison for every year he tried to pretend he hadn’t lived? So, forty-ish? That sounds good.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Him using the race card really pisses me off.

He is a piece of shit that really got off easy for what he did.

I can see him running game on this girl and making her think she is the one that wanted all of this to happen.

I hope this young lady is getting counseling to deal with this trauma.

 

[Mountaineer95]

“He blames in large part the child victim for these offenses, fails to acknowledge his role in the crime or even recognize that there's blame apart from blaming of the victim and that's troubling to the court”

Yeah, that’s sick. And a cop-out. Reminds me of this case (fortunately it never got to this point):

Earl Bramblett - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[thuumpr]

'Believed' he was victimized because he's black and she's white?

Oh hell yes. We all believe that!

 

[Inferus]

It's only fair he strip too...out of his skin.